Louise Ford

A border guard in the secretive country of North Korea was amazed by the sight of the vape pen being carried by British tourist Del Dinsdale, at first thinking that the device was a bomb.

Mr Dinsdale, 34, was travelling from China into the communist country when his bags were searched by the security services, the Daily Mail reports. When he told the guard that the device was actually a cigarette, his fear turned to amazement and he asked to try it out.

'He thought it was an illegal item being taken into his country but I showed him what it was and he was delighted', Dinsdale told the British newspaper. Strict laws in the reclusive dictatorship means tourists are usually forbidden from taking photos of officials - especially in a relaxed setting. But in this case, the guard made an exception and is seen vaping on the device

VAPERS are to enjoy the same insurance rates as non-smokers for the first time, according to a UK report.

E-cigarette users will save thousands of pounds in health insurance after years of being put in the same category as smokers.

The change comes after a Public Health England report earlier this year showed vaping to be 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes. Vape advocates immediately called for a subsequent change to insurance premiums to reflect vaping being a far healthier alternative to smoking.

Earlier this year, it was reported that life insurance had started to drop after experts revealed at an industry conference how insurance companies were downgrading the risk for users of e-cigarettes or nicotine-containing smoking substitutes.

It was revealed at the time, by independent

E-CIGARETTE giant Juul has pulled some of its flavoured vape products from retail stores and vape shops, it has announced.

• Read the vaping.com guide on the best JUUL alternatives

Sales of the flavoured pods which it deems the most appealing to young people will be only available on its own secure website - and restricted to consumers aged 21, through verification.

Strict measures will include consumers having to input their social security number to match records as well as verifying identity through a phone number and photo at checkout.

Flavours which have been pulled off shelves from over 90,000 retail stores across America include mango, fruit, crème and cucumber.

Juul has also announced plans to delete its social media channels including Facebook and Instagram, because of its potential draw for teens.

THE US government is considering banning the online sales of e-cigarettes, it has been revealed.

Head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Scott Gottlieb has admitted the shock move is one of the proposals "on the table" as part of its crackdown on teen vaping.

While speaking on a panel discussion on e-cigarettes hosted by US news website Axios on Tuesday, Gottlieb explained the FDA will reveal more about its future plans in November when they release new data on the use of e-cigarettes by minors.

The proposal has already been heavily criticized as a potential disaster to America's health with thousands of ex smokers having quit their deadly cigarette addiction thanks to vaping.

Gottlieb told the panel: “One of the things we’re looking at is whether or not we should change our regulations to address how these products are being sold, particularly how they’re being sold online.

“We have two problems

FLAVOURED e-cigarettes could only be sold in vape stores under a plan to stop underage sales, the US Food and Drug Administration has claimed.

The government agency believes many teens are getting away with illegally buying flavoured vape products in retail shops and is considering taking drastic steps to curb it.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told America’s CNBC that he believes vape stores are better at checking ID from customers and is considering confining some e-cigarette sales, specifically flavoured products, to specialist shops and disallowing them in stores such as 7-Eleven and Circle K.

He said: "We're looking at what can be sold in brick-and-mortar stores and whether or not flavoured products can be sold in regular stores like a 7-Eleven and a truck stop

E-CIGARETTE manufacturer Juul Labs Inc is creating a new Bluetooth-linked vape which can detect if it’s being used by a minor.

The inbuilt system, to be launched in some Western European countries and Israel, will be able to detect a users age in a bid to stop teenagers from vaping their popular brand.

The Bluetooth tracker was originally designed to help former smokers watch their nicotine intake but CEO Kevin Burns has revealed it will now show how old its vaper is.

The move comes as Juul’s sleek e-cigarette, which looks like a USB, has been at the centre of media controversy this year with headlines and anti-vaping groups accusing it of getting a whole generation of teenagers and young people addicted to nicotine.

It has also been criticized by health and school officials who claim its not just it’s pocket-sized design which entices 15 to 24 year olds who make up the bulk of its demographic, but its range of fruit and candy flavours.

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ONE of the strictest countries in the world for vaping has reportedly taken its first step towards lifting its notoriously rigorous e-cigarette ban.

Thailand’s Foreign Trade ministry is currently considering allowing tourists to bring their personal vape gear and liquids into the country for personal use, according to news reports.

Importing vape products to sell or to use in public, however, will remain strictly forbidden.

In what is being seen as a positive move, a working group within the government has now been set up to look at the repercussions of lifting Thailand’s outright ban, which would mean foreigners are not found guilty of importing e-cigarettes when they bring vape products with them on holiday.

According to reports, concerns within government about the law change include the possibility of turning more people into cigarette smokers and their appeal to teenagers and young people.

Thailand remains

A TV money expert has highlighted how vaping is destroying the cigarette industry after last week’s drastic drop in shares of key tobacco stocks.

‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer has spoken out about the huge shifts within the long-standing cigarette industry after it was “obliterated” on Wall Street.

He went further by urging viewers not to invest in the tobacco market after investors realized it was facing an “existential threat” from its vape competition.

Speaking on his CNBC show, Cramer - a former hedge fund manager - addressed the shock share price drop in Altria, the parent company of Marlboro-makers Philip Morris International, by 16 per cent, which was blamed on rapidly declining cigarette volumes.

Billed as its “worst day” in a decade, Altria also suffered after being downgraded from “buy” to “neutral” on the stock market by Citigroup analyst Adam Spielman following its weak earnings report.

"We saw the market's sudden

Millions of smokers have used e-cigarettes to ditch tobacco. And landmark studies have shown that vaping only carries a fraction of the risk of smoking cigarettes.

But the world of vaping can be confusing for beginners. Just look at some of the terminology involved.

Sure, you can always ask for advice from your friend who has vaped for years. But an experienced vaper’s set-up probably isn’t suitable for someone who is just starting out.

One of the first distinctions a new vaper needs to know about is the difference between Mouth to Lung and Direct Lung vaping.

First and foremost, this is a difference in vaping styles. But it also affects what hardware and vape juice a vaper buys, because some products are optimized for Mouth to Lung vaping and some for Direct Lung

YOUTH smoking has fallen three times faster since the emergence of vaping, a new study has confirmed.

The long-term decline in youth and young adults having a deadly cigarette habit has accelerated in the US since e-cigarettes became popular in 2014, according to research published in the Tobacco Control journal.

Entitled “Examining the relationship of vaping to smoking initiation among US youth and young adults: a reality check”, the study was led by public health experts Professors David Levy, Ken Warner and Australian Ron Borland.

The research, which used publicly available data to study the trends, revealed: “There was a substantial increase in youth vaping prevalence beginning in about 2014. Time trend analyses showed that the decline in past 30-day smoking prevalence accelerated

SMOKERS who live in public housing could face a smoking ban in their own homes and urged to vape instead, under new plans being considered in the UK.

Following a recent report which revealed smoking is twice as common and “highly concentrated” in council-owned properties and estates, tenants of new housing blocks may be forced to stop smoking cigarettes under new proposals, it has been revealed.

Politicians have suggested smokers be handed vaping kits by housing associations if the idea comes into force to help ease tenant's withdrawal symptoms and manage their nicotine addiction .

Two All Party Parliamentary Groups and anti-smoking charity Ash believe the new measures could save lives and have asked housing associations to look at bringing in the ban to any new housing properties that become available.

Ash’s Hazel Cheeseman said: “We are not saying all new developments should be [smoke-free] but it’s something that housing

AMERICA’S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to ban sales of most flavoured e-cigarettes in stores and gas stations nationwide under a plan to stop underage vaping, it has been revealed.

The FDA is expected to announce details of the new measures next week, according to a senior agency official as reported in America’s Washington Post.

New measures will also include setting up age-verification measures for online sales to stop minors buying flavoured pods.

The sales ban in grocery stores and gas stations is not expected to include menthol and tobacco flavours, reportedly because there are concerns that adult vapers could switch to their cigarette equivalents if they are not easily available.

The news comes just several weeks after FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told America’s CNBC that he was considering confining flavoured e-cigarette sales to vape

SWITCHING to vaping is successful in helping heavy smokers quit their habit, another new study has shown.

New research presented at the nicotine and tobacco research conference, SRNT in Munich, showed – yet again - that e-cigarettes are helping those who are addicted to smoking tobacco.

Senior Lecturer Alexis Bailey presented preliminary results to industry experts from his observational study, “SmokeFreeBrain”, which looked at the effect that switching from smoking to vaping for 28 days, had on heavy smokers.

The team measured several parameters including psychometric, cardiovascular, quality of life, brain activity and bio-markers of toxicity.

Findings from the 31 subjects who completed the study showed subtle but significant changes in psychometric parameters and a considerable reduction in bio-markers of toxicity.

Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes also reduced the craving to smoke and affected brain regions associated with addiction. Exposure

HONG Kong plans to impose a total ban on e-cigarettes, it has been announced – because they are too tempting to young people.

Chief executive Carrie Lam said in a policy address on Wednesday (October 11) that all alternative smoking devices, from e-cigarettes to heat-not-burn tobacco products, will be made illegal, including their sale, manufacture and import.

Cigarettes and conventional tobacco products, however, will remain available.

Hong Kong had ruled out a ban earlier this year and outlined in legislative proposal in June how it intended to regulate e-cigarettes by prohibiting advertising and restricting its sale to minors, as it does with traditional tobacco products.

But in a dramatic U-turn, Lan announced that due to its attractiveness to young people and that there was “a lack of sufficient evidence to prove the products can help quit smoking” the government favoured an outright ban instead.

Lam said at a briefing after her address: "Without

AMERICA’S new restrictions on the sale of e-cigarette flavours have come under fire by both anti and pro vapers.

The U.S. government's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that while it won’t implement a ban on flavoured vape juice and pods from stores and gas stations, as originally expected in its drive to restrict underage vaping, all shops must now “police” themselves.

Stores will be expected to implement closed-off, over-18 areas instead, which would be inaccessible to teenagers, where fruit and candy flavours will be sold. Under the new laws, tobacco, menthol and mint flavours will remain unrestricted and can be sold anywhere.

In a move that pro vapers and ex smokers say could result in stores cutting back on selling juices and pods all together, a separate cashier would be needed for the new

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has admitted the American public has been misinformed about the dangers of vaping - and is now going to promote it as an alternative to smoking.

The leading health organization has set out in a public statement that it is tobacco, not nicotine, which contains the cancer-causing chemicals and carcinogens and states there's an "urgent need" for consumer education about the risks posed by different tobacco products

While the ACS had already confirmed vaping was a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes in a report earlier this year, its tougher stance on eradicating the current smoking epidemic through actively promoting e-cigarettes and other cessation tools, is being seen as a positive step by vaping advocacy groups and public health experts.

It said in the statement: “Although many Electronic Nicotine Device Systems [such as e-cigarettes] deliver nicotine, flavour additives, and other chemicals, they do not

PRESIDENT Trump’s proposal to ban all e-cigarette flavours has been questioned by health campaigners who say it could see millions switch back to tobacco.

The US president announced on Wednesday that the government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be putting out “some very strong recommendations” to force all sales of flavoured vape juice, other than tobacco, to be withdrawn from the market.

Critics claim, however, that Trump’s announcement is a knee jerk reaction to an outbreak of a severe respiratory disease in the US, which is being blamed on vaping. However many of those hospitalized have admitted to vaping a range of substances and marijuana-based products and do-it-yourself brews, not regulated products.

Trump, however, has said his proposed ban is to combat teen vaping and the FDA will now be developing guidelines to remove all flavours from sale, which have been blamed for enticing young people to vape.

The proposed restrictions would only