Anti-vaping spammers posted more than a quarter of a million comments on the FDA’s public flavour ban consultation in one weekend last month.

It is reported that the online public forum was flooded with 255,000 fake comments in a single weekend, with almost every spam comment asking the FDA to ban e-liquid flavours.

FDA sources described these fraudulent comments as “extraordinary” and “unprecedented”, according to Regulator Watch.

Internet bots entered the quarter million comments between June 8 and June 11, before the FDA finally located the source of the comments and blocked four IP addresses used by the spammers.

Most of the comments were posted without a first or last name and used similar anti-vaping comments including ‘I am a concerned

“If anything, restricting e-cigarettes may incentivize youth to try combustible cigarettes instead.” 

The man who invented nicotine patches to help smokers quit has raised serious doubts about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) strategy to combat youth vaping.

Last month, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb launched a raft of new enforcement measures as he deplored a new youth vaping ‘epidemic’.

New measures included a clampdown on shops selling to minors and the possibility that some products - particularly flavoured e-liquids - could be removed from shelves.

While Dr. Gottlieb acknowledged that e-cigarettes are a helpful smoking alternative for adults, he said that this needed to be balanced against the risk of nicotine addiction in kids.

“It’s now clear to me, that in closing the on-ramp

The much-vaunted Cole-Bishop Amendment was voted down on Sunday. The Cole Bishop amendment would have grandfathered all vaping products that were on the market on 8/8 last year, and exempted them from PMTAs.

As things stand, then, we’re back on the FDA’s regulatory countdown; although the countdown was (perhaps not coincidentally) pushed back by 3 months on Monday.

This is not to say, however, that things are the same as they were six months ago. A few things have become clear to me over the last couple of weeks through conversations with people deeply involved in the regulatory process. These elements will shape the contours of how this all plays out over the long-term.

1. FDA understands vaping better now

FDA has

The makers and distributors of some popular vape juice flavours, including One Mad Hit Juice Box, V’Nilla Cookies & Milk and Unicorn Cakes, have withdrawn products from sale, following warnings from the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Last week, the FDA announced that 17 companies had agreed to take products off the market, because they were packaged or advertised as ‘child-friendly' food products like juice boxes and candies.

“When companies market these products using imagery that misleads a child into thinking they’re things they’ve consumed before, like a juice box or candy, that can create an imminent risk of harm,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner.

vaping.com did not stock any of the affected products and our range of vape juice will

An essay by Oliver Kershaw & Amelia Howard

There is a disconnect between the tobacco research community and the vape community. Both groups have almost totally divergent knowledge-base of the technology; the former based on its existing tobacco research agenda, the latter based on practical experience with the technology and through peer-learning and marketing.

We contend that vape is not an extension of the medical science paradigm or the tobacco control paradigm and, therefore, that the techniques used to (simultaneously) understand and tackle tobacco usage are wholly inappropriate in understanding vape. We are not saying that these established paradigms are illegitimate or irrelevant. But they do not work well when it comes to understanding user-driven technology, which, importantly, is also not an extension of the tobacco industry.

This has led to a continued and intractable divergence between the practice community

Urging tobacco smokers to switch to safer forms of nicotine, the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has claimed that nicotine is ‘no more harmful to health than caffeine’.

Alarmingly, the organisation found that nine out of ten people still believe that nicotine by itself is harmful.

In reality, RSPH claims, the chemical is no worse than the caffeine found in you morning cup of Joe.

Nicotine is harmful in tobacco cigarettes largely because it is combined with other dangerous ingredients including tar, arsenic and carbon monoxide. In these circumstances, the addictive chemical is dangerous because it keeps smokers hooked on dangerous tobacco cigarettes.

Almost half a million Americans die from tobacco cigarettes each year and the Centres

Clone Vape Mods: Deal or Disaster?

Knock-off products are nothing new; Purses or shoes that look identical to the real thing, with a much lower price tag, of course. You can’t fault people for buying them. Sometimes they’re even great for a laugh. But, what about clone vape mods? Are these drastically cheaper kits a great deal? Or, is there something far more insidious going on?

What Are Clone Vape Mods?

Clone vape mods are, as the name suggests, clones of another vape mod. These are often identical to a brand name mod, and nearly impossible to tell apart at a glance.

Despite them looking identical to a brand name mod, clone vape mods are also much cheaper than their name

Lots of people use exercise to help them ditch their tobacco habit. Exercise can help in limiting weight gain, reducing hunger and managing your stress levels as you try to leave tobacco for good.

Research also shows that exercise can be used to combat cigarette cravings. In a study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, researchers gave three groups of nicotine-addicted mice an exercise wheel for 24, 2 or 0 hours each day.

The mice who could exercise showed large reductions in the typical chemical symptoms associated with nicotine withdrawal.

Alexis Bailey, who led the study at St George’s, University of London said: “The evidence suggests that exercise decreases nicotine withdrawal symptoms in humans; however, the mechanisms mediating this effect are unclear.”

But what kind of exercise should you do? Here are 14 ideas to get you started.

Walking

Exercise may seem daunting at first, particularly if you aren’t in great shape.

Even by the standards of an industry where ground breaking years are the norm, 2016 will go down in history as a period where vaping was changed forever.

FDA unveiled its new regulations that essentially amount to a ban, but all this could change next year with a new President in the White House. Europe regulated the industry with a much lighter touch and Canada announced plans to legalize and regulate nicotine-containing vape juice for the first time.

Doctors in the UK demanded that the government there promote vaping heavily as an alternative to smoking. And there were also a lot of new product launches and, of course, the launch of vaping.com.

We recap the year’s most important events in this infographic. And if you’re looking to change your habits in the new year, or you need a new vape kit, we’re offering 10% off across vaping.com with the code “YEARINVAPING”.

The Best Vape Memes on the Internet

Vaping has blown up in popularity in recent years. Like anything popular, it’s become the subject of many a meme. Similar to being mocked by a TV show, having memes made about you is truly a sign you’ve made it. Thus, vape memes are, in our opinion, an honour. But which ones are the best?

Our Top 30 Vape Memes

There are vape memes for days. In fact, there are too many vape memes to count. We took it upon ourselves to do the absolutely back-breaking work of looking at hundreds and hundreds of memes to find the best the internet has to offer. Without further ado, here are our personal favourites.

1. A Vape Too Far