The Doeksen ferry company which operates services between Vlieland, Terschelling and the mainland will ban smoking on its ferries and at its terminals as of the 1st of January.
Translation by Traci White
Smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes and e-cigarettes will no longer be permitted on the boats, inside terminals or anywhere on the grounds of facilities owned by Doeksen. Omrop Fryslân reports that smoking had been banned inside the boats and terminals since 2008, but the new policy is expanding the ban to include to the upper deck and areas surrounding the terminal buildings.
Doeksen’s new policy is in keeping with measures laid out in the “Smoke-free Generation” initiative by the Dutch Heart Foundation, the KWF Cancer Treatment Foundation and the Lung Foundation.
According to the ferry company, the new policy is not only beneficial for a healthier environment for their staff and travellers, but it is also better for the Wadden Sea: cigarette butts will no longer be thrown into the water. Worldwide, 580 trillion cigarette butts wash ashore.
Wagenborg is the ferry operator to the other Wadden islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland, and there was already a smoking ban in place on board their ferries.
