Louise Ford

EX-SMOKERS would be better off with high over low nicotine strength e-cigarettes, new research has revealed.

A recent experiment into vaping use, funded by well-respected charity Cancer Research, showed vapers who used to smoke tobacco are more likely to use their devices more intensely

While ex smokers might believe that starting out on a low nicotine strength e-cigarette might be a good thing, it may be more beneficial to start high to reduce overuse and the amount of e-liquid used.

While the amount of toxins in vaping is minimal compared with smoking and the impact on health is much smaller, the use of more e-liquid does come at a financial cost.

Vapers are now advised to adjust nicotine levels in their e-cigarettes to a comfortable level where they don’t feel a strong urge to vape, don’t have acute withdrawal symptoms and are more satisfied after use.

Researchers based at London South Bank University studied 20 e-cigarette users in the

A US city could have one of the strictest anti vaping regulations ever seen in the western world.
A total ban on flavoured liquids is set to be voted for by San Francisco residents on Tuesday,  June 5th, after the city’s Board of Supervisors last year approved a total ban on flavoured tobacco products, including e-liquids.
The law was agreed despite the city government facing fierce opposition from vaping advocates and the industry as a whole.
But before it was actioned, tobacco company RJ Reynolds organised a petition to force a ballot – now known as Proposition E – which will see the law go to the public vote in a matter of days.
The ban includes everything from candy-flavoured e-cigarettes to conventional menthol smokes.
Opponents to the ban, who are mostly consumers and small business owners, are worried the law could kill off local businesses in the city.
Vape users as well as harm reduction advocates also argue that banning flavours would

YouTube is removing videos relating to vaping products, it has been reported.

E-cigarette reviewers claim content has been ripped from the video-hosting platform while others report channels are being deleted with little chance to appeal.

Posts that mention the controversial vape brand JUUL, currently being investigated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because of its alleged appeal to teenagers, appear to be the most targeted.

Experts claim the move by YouTube comes after a state-backed push against e-cigarette advertising in America, particularly in regard to flavoured e-juice which are used in vaporizers and pressure groups claim are tempting young people into vaping.

In the past few months anti-vaping hysteria has spread across America fuelled by the single-issue pressure groups like the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, which has in turn seen the FDA forced to take action.

The regulator is now pressurizing online platforms to

E-cigarettes and vaping could start appearing in glossy TV, radio and newspaper ads under new laws in Canada.

The federal government's new Tobacco and Vaping Products Act will force tobacco companies to use plain packaging but it also opens up a world of marketing possibilities for vaping liquids and e-cigarettes.

The new law, which received royal assent last week, legalizes and regulates what had been a "bold, black market," according to David Hammond, a prominent university professor and chair of Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Nicotine e-liquids have, until now, been technically illegal but available at vape shops and other stores in most cities across the country with most international companies staying out of the market.

With legalization however, Hammond predicts Canadians will see big multi-national companies move into the marketplace and so will their ads.

Restrictions on e-cigarette advertising will also be far weaker than

VAPING with nicotine is now legal in New Zealand.
The country’s ministry of health has announced all tobacco products (except types that are chewed or dissolved in the mouth) can be lawfully imported, sold and distributed under the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990.
The move has been on the cards for over a year after Health Minister Nicky Wagner revealed in March 2017 how it was set to adopt a low risk approach to legalising vaping, since "scientific evidence was still being developed".
Last August, the health ministry went further by confirming smokeless tobacco products such as snus and inhaled nicotine were going to be added to the list of legalised products as part of the Smokefree 2025 campaign.
Following the new legislation, Wagner said the government was now looking forward to seeing how allowing people to vape might affect smoking rates.
“There’s a general consensus that vaping is much less harmful than smoking. The Government is taking a cautious

CONSUMERS in South Africa would find it harder to vape than smoke cigarettes if a new law is passed.

A consumer group has also warned the country’s vaping industry could go "up in smoke" under new government proposals.

The new law - The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill - which is out for comment and consideration, proposes to bring e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products under regulatory control for the first time.

Under the proposals, e-cigarettes will no longer be available in vending machines, will be sold in plain packaging and banned for under-18s.

E-cigarettes users will also face tight restrictions on where they can vape as the bill proposes more stringent limits on smoking in public places than the Tobacco Products Control Act, which it will replace.

The Vapour Product Association, which represents companies that sell e-cigarettes, is now planning a national campaign to oppose the proposed law, saying

Smokers who want to quit with e-cigarettes could be put off if they’re prescribed by doctors, experts say.

Users who are thinking of using the devices as a stop-smoking tool might not experiment with vaping if they start to be treated as a medical product.

Industry experts explained that because smokers don’t see their nicotine addiction as a disease, if patients starting picking up e-cigarettes at a pharmacy or via a medical prescription, it could have a “detrimental effect” on their success.

Not only that, it could potentially make them less available on the high street.

The warning given to UK politicians at a Commons Science and Technology Committee comes after Public Health England said in a report earlier this year there was "compelling evidence" e-cigarettes should be made available on the NHS due to their success in helping people stop smoking.

The body said e-cigarettes are at least 95 per cent less harmful than smoking and suggested

A PROPOSAL to use cigarette packets to promote vaping could be considered in the UK.
Pharmacy minister Steve Brine said the “interesting idea” to help smokers switch to e-cigarettes as a cessation aid may be something his department would back.
The proposal to use cigarette packets, which currently feature public health images, as a vehicle to promote e-cigarettes was put to the minister by MP Stephen Metcalfe at a parliamentary hearing.
Brine was giving evidence along with representatives from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health England (PHE), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Tim Baxter, director of healthy behaviours at the DHSC, told the Science and Technology committee hearing on e-cigarettes that under current legislation it is illegal to put promotional material into cigarette packs, but agreed with Brine that it was something the government should

LIFE insurance for vapers is finally set to drop after Public Health England's report revealed it is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.
Until now, e-cigarette users have had to pay double the premiums of a non-smoker after receiving the same life insurance rates as cigarette smokers.
Now the UK Vaping Industry Association has collaborated with insurance broker Future Proof and Canada Insurance to finally offer vaper users life insurance that reflects their switch to a healthier lifestyle. It is now hoping others will start following suit.
The move comes after it was revealed how most high street insurers calculate vaping to be as dangerous as smoking for life insurance policies and for many years have been doubling premiums.
An industry conference also heard how no major insurance firm in Britain was prepared to downgrade the risk for users of e-cigarettes or nicotine-containing smoking substitutes.
Insurance expert Andrew Wibberley told the UK Vaping

VAPERS in Hawaii are being urged to protest against a massive 70 per cent tax on e-liquids planned by legislators.
An outright ban of internet sales is also close to being passed in a new bill set for the US state.
Bill SB2654 aims to end online sales of tobacco sales, which not only includes cigarettes but vaping products too.
If it is passed, it will be illegal to ship tobacco products to anyone who isn’t involved in the sale or distribution of tobacco - therefore banning any sale to a private individual.
Under the bill, e-liquid is also included in the state’s definition of “tobacco product”.
Hawaiian vapers are now being asked to protest against the measures planned for the state, which many believe could destroy its vape industry.
“We don’t know what it’s going to end up as. We’re strongly opposed to any taxes for our customers and the industry,” said Scott Rasak of Volcano Fine Electronic Cigarettes.
“VapoUr products and tobacco products

ONE of America's top universities, named after James Duke who made his fortune from tobacco, is set to go smoke-free from 2020 - but will allow students to vape.

Duke University will join over 2,000 educational institutions in outlawing smoking within two years - but unlike many American universities, the private research school will not ban e-cigarettes on campus.

Instead students will be allowed to vape and use therapeutic nicotine aids on its North Carolina university grounds.

The move has been cited as ironic since Duke’s history is bound together with tobacco and in particular, cigarettes, after it was named after donor James Buchanan Duke, who began his American Tobacco Company there in 1890.

The industrial magnate — the first to use cigarette rolling machines to produce cigarettes — at one time controlled 90 percent of the U.S. cigarette market. He also co-founded the power company that later morphed into what is now called Duke Energy. In

CORNER shop owners in New Zealand are being urged to consider stocking e-cigarettes after an increase in violent tobacco-related robberies.

Over 1,200 stores were raided in the past year for cash and cigarettes, which fetch a high price in the country, leaving businesses and workers living in terror.

While mini markets are going to extreme lengths to protect themselves from the armed raids, including fog cannons and security guards, stocking e-cigarettes has now been put forward as an idea to reduce crime.

Dairy store owner Sandeep Patel was forced to install a security cage around his Hamilton shop after two teenagers attacked him with a machete before making off with $20,000 of cigarettes and the entire till.

With cigarettes accounting for 70 per cent of their shop sales, Patel's family claims without selling them their corner stores wouldn’t survive.

"It's really, really scary now. This is happening everyday," he said, "It's happening

A HOST of experts in tobacco research and public health are set to speak at The E-cigarette Summit USA later this month.

For the second consecutive year since launching in the US in 2017, the conference - which is held regularly in the UK - will take place in Washington DC on April 30th.

Registration for the event is now open and with tickets selling out fast, interested parties are urged to secure their places as soon as possible.

The event is considered to be particularly relevant to regulators and policy advisors, health care providers, tobacco researchers and medical professionals.

Prominent speakers include renowned industry personalities Attorney General of Iowa, Tom Miller, CEO of Action on Smoking and Health UK, Deborah Arnott, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, Amy Fairchild and well-respected public health expert Clive Bates.

Chaired by Professor Thomas Glynn, a varied and interesting

ONE of the world’s strictest countries with an outright ban on vaping is debating making it legal.

Thailand, which has some of the harshest e-cigarette regulations worldwide - with a maximum 10-year prison term for importing and possession - is considering a change in law.

Academics and vapers have now attended a potentially ground breaking seminar this week to discuss the health benefits of e-cigarettes to help discourage smoking in the country.

The debaters agreed that the government should follow in the footsteps of the UK by legalising vaping in a bid to stop smokers using cigarettes. They also agreed it would improve health and cause less pollution.

A ban on the import, export, sale and possession of vaping products has been in place in the country since November 2014. Anyone found breaking the law faces a hefty fine or a prison sentence of up to 10 years if convicted.

Last December two young adults in Pathum Thani made the headlines

FERTILITY charities have slammed the NHS for refusing to give IVF to couples who use e-cigarettes – saying it is to save money.

Charity organisation Fertility Networks says the decision by at least 16 authorities across the UK to not help women who use tobacco replacement therapies is an example of how “arbitrary access criteria” is being used to cut costs.

Critics say it is unfair to refuse treatment to those who have switched from cigarettes to vaping or nicotine patches since there is no proof nicotine is harmful in pregnancy.

The policy has been drawn up by 16 NHS authorities, known as clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), according to a survey for The Mail on Sunday.

The CCGs that have introduced the measure include all ten in Greater Manchester as well as NHS Crawley, NHS Horsham and Mid-Sussex, NHS Ipswich and East Sussex, NHS West Suffolk, NHS Milton Keynes, and NHS Nene in Northamptonshire.

Of the 117 CCGs that responded to the survey,

Pro-vaping association CASAA has called on Americans to reach out to Congress to stop e-cigarettes becoming illegal.

Vapers have until March 22nd to get in touch with their local politicians to help ensure modern vaping products have modern legislation to match.

Congress is currently drawing up its budget and working out how to fund a massive two-year spending package so non-profit NGO Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives says now is the time to act.

One of the final appropriations bills in the mix for negotiation, which will fund the government for fiscal year 2018, is the Cole-Bishop Amendment (house bill HR 1136), a bill introduced last year by Reps. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Sanford Bishop of Georgia which would set in place more appropriate regulations for e-cigarettes and most importantly would change the predicate date to August 8, 2016.

The current predicate date is currently set at February

THE UAE is at the centre of a plan to ramp up its ban on vaping but not cigarettes - saying it’s “a well known fact” they are no better than tobacco.

The country is bringing in further stringent regulations to ensure there is no way e-cigarettes can be brought into the country while cigarettes, although heavily taxed, remain easily available

In a statement which has shocked pro-vapers, Head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, explained a proposal to work better with customs to clamp down on e-cigarettes, adding it was a “well known fact” e-cigarettes are no better than cigarettes and do not really help to quit smoking.

Branded by pro-vapers as “comedic”, “out-of-date” and neither “well known” nor “fact”, her statement comes just a month after Public Health England reported vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes following research by some of the world’s top experts and scientists.

Despite further world-class