In a new anti-smoking advertising campaign rolled out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, menthol cigarettes are highlighted multiple times.
“Elizabeth, age 62, started smoking menthol cigarettes at the age of 18 because her friends and co-workers smoked. Within a year, Elizabeth was smoking about a pack and a half a day. She smoked at home and work and participated in activities where she could smoke,” said the CDC.
She went on to have a stroke and she currently has peripheral artery disease (PAD) and kidney cancer, the centers added. Also chronicled were the health challenges of menthol smoker Angie P. – a daughter of preachers who said she turned to cigarettes due the stress of hiding her LGBTQ+ identity – and Ethan B., who had his first cigarette at age 10 and then began smoking menthol cigarettes regularly while in the Army.
“I started smoking menthol cigarettes at age 15,” said Angie. “As a gay teen trying to figure out who I was – I hid behind cigarettes.
Menthol cigarettes are often associated with products marketed as “menthol” indicating that they have a minty, cooling quality compared to typical tobacco cigarettes. However, the CDC explained that most cigarettes sold in the U.S. contain at least some menthol.
This compound is typically found in peppermint. It “can change the way the brain registers the sensations of taste and pain,” said the CDC. Menthol creates a cooling sensation in the throat, making the sensation of smoking less harsh.
According to the CDC, menthol cigarettes are more attractive to young consumers and menthol enhances the effects of nicotine, making the risk of addiction to cigarettes more severe. Additionally, the centers said that menthol makes it more difficult for smokers to quit.
“In 2021, sales of menthol-flavored cigarettes made up 37% of all cigarette sales in the U.S.,” said the CDC. “This is the highest proportion since major tobacco companies were first required to report those data to the federal government in 1963, when menthol cigarettes made up 16% of all cigarettes sales in the U.S.”
Per the CDC, tobacco companies target certain groups – especially Black people and younger people – with aggressive marketing.
“Young people, racial and ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with a low income, and people with mental health conditions also are more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other population groups,” it said.
In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced proposed product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars. These prohibitions would “have the potential to significantly reduce disease and death from combusted tobacco product use,” said the administration.
Roll Call reported in December that the FDA delayed the rules until next month.
“The administration signaled the decision by updating its regulatory agenda to bump the rules from their original target date in August to March 2024,” the outlet said. “The White House Office of Management and Budget has scheduled meetings on the rules with lobbyists and advocates through January.”