Yasmeen Louis

The government has introduced a new £3 million ‘illicit vape enforcement’ squad in a crackdown on current loopholes in the law that allow firms to offer free vapes to children as part of their marketing strategy.

The plans to close the loophole were passed by prime minister Rishi Sunak today (30 May), in the wake of recent NHS figures which show that the number of 11 to 15-year-old children using e-cigarettes in 2021 has gone up to 9% – up from 6% in 2018.

While selling vapes to under-18s is c

Staff at the University of Hertfordshire are set to take part in strike action at the end of this month. They will join 70,000 university staff at 150 universities across the UK as the University and College Union (UCU) prepares to go on strike on November 24, 25 and 30.

The strike comes after disputes over pay, conditions and pensions, and are due to "escalate" in the new year if employers don’t "act fast and make improved offers", says UCU. Herts UCU announced its intention to strike on Twitt

China has banned the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on the industry. The new rules mean vapes that have flavourings other than tobacco – such as those that taste fruity or sweet – cannot be sold on the domestic market.

But they can still be manufactured in China to be shipped around the world, including to the UK, where Chinese-made brands such as Elfbar, known for its range of flavoured disposable vapes, are popular.

The ban, which comes into effect this mo

Childhood days on the beach or messing around in rivers can have significant lasting benefits for our wellbeing in adulthood, according to a study.

It found that exposure to blue spaces – such as coasts, rivers and lakes – as a child made revisiting blue spaces in adulthood more likely, as these adults showed greater familiarity with and placed greater value in natural settings.

More than 15,000 participants in 18 different countries were surveyed for the study, published in the Journal of Env

Banning flights on routes with fast rail connections could cut the UK’s emissions from domestic aviation by a third, a report has found.

The report by the thinktank Intergenerational Foundation (IF) found that domestic aviation was responsible for the emission of 2.7 megatonnes of CO in 2019 alone – the equivalent of the annual emissions from 1.7 million petrol cars or the energy to power 700,000 UK homes for a year.

If domestic flights on routes with a rail alternative under 4.5 hours were ba

Crocs comeback? Or an embarrassment of a shoe?

As a shamefully avid follower of the latest fashion trends, I am no stranger to purchasing the odd, but currently ‘in’ wardrobe piece.

However, Crocs are where I firmly draw the line. It is not that they don’t have their purpose:

Children under the age of seven, geriatrics taking up gardening in retirement homes, nurses in hospital scrubs and on Zara models while they oddly showcase entirely different garments – forced to demonstrate their gymnas