menthol - Tobacco Reporter

Campaign Launched Against Menthol Ban

A conservative advocacy group has launched a campaign opposing a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes in the United States, reports Fox News.

In its campaign, Building America’s Future contends that restricting menthol cigarette sales would jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars in state revenue nationwide. According to a Tax Foundation analysis conducted in 2022, the measure would cost the federal government $1.9 billion and state governments a total of $4.7 billion in lost tax revenues.

The average pack of cigarettes in the U.S. attracts $1.91 in state taxes and $1.01 in federal taxes. Additionally, every state continues to receive funds from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, which, translates to about $0.75 per pack in 2022, according to the Tax Foundation.

In April 2022, the FDA issued product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors other than tobacco in cigars.

Last month, the FDA sent the proposed regulations to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, a final step in finalizing and eventually implementing the menthol cigarette ban.

In related news, the convenience and fuel retailing group NACS has been urging its members to urge the White House to stop the menthol ban from moving forward, using the organization’s grassroots portal. Rather than reducing smoking, the group believes that a menthol ban would fuel illicit cigarette sales.

For convenience stores, menthol cigarettes account for 34 percent of cigarette sales and flavored cigars account for 51 percent of cigar sales. Removing them from shelves means that current users who cannot quit or switch to other tobacco products will search for the products from illegal sources, according to the organization.

November 6, 2023

FDA Prevails in Logic Challenge

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has defeated Logic Technology Development after the e-cigarette manufacturer asked the courts to block the regulatory agency’s market ban on Logic’s menthol-flavored e-cigarette products, according to media reports.

Logic filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, alleging the FDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it denied Logic’s premarket tobacco product application to market its menthol-flavored vaping products. The court denied that petition Thursday after concluding the FDA “based decisions on scientific judgments.”

Logic alleged it was arbitrary and capricious for the FDA to apply the same regulatory framework to menthol that it used to remove fruit- and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes from commerce. The Third Circuit Court entered a stay on the FDA’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) in December 2022. The MDOs were the FDA’s first-ever MDOs directed at menthol e-cigarette products.

October 20, 2023

Menthol Rule Advances to U.S. Budget Office

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) sent its rules to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review, reports CNN.

The final rules will be issued following this last regulatory step.

The American Lung Association (ALA) said this regulation may be the most significant action the FDA has taken in the 14 years since it was given the authority to regulate tobacco.

“It’s a big, vital and critical step on the way to banning these products,” said ALA Assistant Vice President of National Advocacy Erika Sward. “ Truly, it’s momentous.”

According to a 2022 study published in Tobacco Control, prohibiting menthol cigarettes would save up to 654,000 lives in the U.S. within 40 years, including the lives of 255,000 members of the Black community.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids called for the White House and the OMB to expedite their review and issue the final rule by the end of 2023.

October 17, 2023

California Flavor Ban Spawned Illicit Market

California’s 2022 ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored vapes has spawned a large, illicit marketplace for such products in the state, according to a study carried out WPSM Group.

The researchers collected 15,000 empty discarded cigarette packs and 4,529 vapor product packages from May 1 through June 28 in 10 California cities. The study shows that the flavor ban has had limited effect on the access or demand for flavored vapor products or menthol cigarettes throughout the entire state. The results of the study include:

Of the vapor packs found, almost all (97.9 percent) were flavored.
Menthol (14 percent) and “menthol workaround” (7.1 percent) cigarettes combined made up 21.1 percent of the packs found compared to 24.5 percent of the California marketplace prior to the ban implementation.
More than one-quarter (27.6 percent) of products found were nondomestic products, which are not intended for the U.S. market. These products were primarily from U.S. Duty Free, Worldwide Duty Free, China and Mexico.
One cigarette brand, Sheriff, the fifth most prevalent brand found, is only intended for use outside the U.S.
The study indicated significant loss of state cigarette tax revenue. Among packs where it was possible to determine what tax stamp was applied, only 45 percent bore the California tax stamp.
This data suggests illicit cigarette markets are costing California as much as $1.27 billion annually in cigarette excise tax revenues—a funding source that supports important government programs.

“This study provides further evidence that keeping products legal and regulated is the best path forward for tobacco policy,” said David Fernandez, vice president of government affairs and public policy of Altria Group, in a statement. “This data shows these products shifting in real time to illicit markets, which we know lack proper government oversight and other benefits of a well-regulated system.”

The ban, which was implemented in December 2022, covers menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars, flavored smokeless tobacco and flavored vapor products.

October 12, 2023

Cigarette Makers Turn to Menthol Substitutes

Cigarette manufacturers are deploying synthetic chemicals that mimic menthol’s cooling sensations in U.S. states that have banned the additive, according to a new study from Duke Health.

Menthol cigarettes are banned in California and Massachusetts and tobacco companies are bracing for a federal ban on the substance later this year.

In a Research Letter appearing online Oct. 9 in JAMA, researchers from Duke Health and Yale University identified new compounds that achieve similar cooling sensations to menthol, which has long been added to tobacco to reduce harshness.

“We found that tobacco companies are adding a synthetic cooling agent called WS-3 to these new “non-menthol” cigarettes,” said Sven-Eric Jordt, associate professor in the department of anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine and senior author of the study, in a statement. “The added amounts are sufficient to produce robust cooling sensations, with some brands having more cooling activity than their menthol equivalent cigarettes.”

When California’s menthol ban was enacted in December 2022, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and ITG Brands introduced non-menthol cigarette brands as menthol substitutes, with similar packaging and marketing strategies as their menthol cigarette brands.

Sairam V. Jabba, a senior research scientist at Duke and lead author of the study, measured whether cigarettes purchased in the two states with bans contain chemicals that activate the cold/menthol receptor, which senses environmental cold temperature and is activated by menthol.

“We found that four of the non-menthol cigarette products, all manufactured by R.J. Reynolds, robustly activated the cold/menthol receptor, and this cooling activity was stronger than of their menthol counterparts,” Jabba said.

“These results signify that these new ‘non-menthol’ cigarettes can produce the same cooling sensations as menthol cigarettes and thereby facilitate smoking initiation,” he said. “Allowing these cigarettes to be marketed would nullify several of the expected public health benefits from state and federal bans of menthol cigarettes.”

A chemical analysis of the “non-menthol” cigarettes detected a synthetic cooling agent, named WS-3, in four of the nine currently marketed products. WS-3 produces a cooling effect, but lacks the minty smell of menthol, allowing these products to bypass regulations. The researchers also detected vanilla and tropical flavor chemicals in “non-menthol” cigarettes, contained in flavor capsules in the filters.

“Our discovery of restricted flavors such as vanilla, which have characteristic odor and taste, demonstrates that Big Tobacco is ignoring current federal regulations banning the addition of characteristic flavors to cigarettes. More importantly, vanilla flavor is a very popular among children and youth, making it easy for them to initiate on these cigarettes,” Jordt said.

October 11, 2023

Menthol Rule Expected ‘in Coming Months’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will finalize its rules to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars “in the coming months,” according to a spokesperson quoted by CBS News.

When the FDA in April 2022 announced that it was going to ban the flavor, it set a deadline of August 2023 to work out the details. However, the agency made no announcements last month.

While the number of people who smoke cigarettes in the U.S. has fallen to historical lows, the proportion of people who smoke menthols has been increasing, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Tobacco companies insist there are better ways to reduce the health impact of smoking than banning menthol in cigarettes. “Evidence from other markets including Canada and the EU where similar bans have been imposed, demonstrates little impact on overall cigarette consumption,” Luis Pinto, vice president of corporate communications and media relations at Reynolds American Inc., told CBS News in an e-mail.

Experts say that even when the FDA enacts a nationwide ban, it could be many years before it goes into place, as tobacco companies are likely to challenge the measure in court.

September 4, 2023

Warning Against ‘Mimic Menthols’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should choose the wording of its intended ban on menthol cigarettes carefully to prevent the emergence of substitute products, according to Maciej Goniewicz, a professor of oncology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s department of health behavior.

A study carried out by Roswell Park revealed that several nonmenthol cigarette brands introduced in California after that state banned flavored cigarettes in December 2022 contain synthetic chemicals to mimic menthol’s cooling effects.

“Synthetic cooling chemicals that may cause sensations similar to menthol have been reported recently in various tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches,” said Goniewicz, who contributed to the research, in a statement. “This is the first study to discover that synthetic cooling chemicals were added to conventional cigarettes marketed after the implementation of statewide menthol restrictions.”

The researchers measured the content of menthol and 15 other cooling chemicals in the new non-menthol cigarettes sold in California and compared those concentrations to similar products with “menthol” labels available in New York State, where menthol cigarettes are not banned.

Among other things, they found that two non-menthol brands marketed to appeal to menthol smokers were available only in California, which according to the researchers suggests that these products are new to the market and marketed to fill the sales void created by the ban on menthol cigarettes.

With the exception of one variety, menthol was not detected in any cigarettes sold in California. However, while WS-3, a synthetic cooling chemical, was not found in any cigarettes sold in New York, the agent was detected in four types of cigarettes in California that included package descriptions implying a cooling effect.

The study results led Goniewicz to conclude that the wording the FDA uses in its regulation will be important. “Otherwise, if the law says simply, ‘You cannot use menthol,’ the manufacturers may do exactly what we found in California—they will use menthol substitutes, and the product will remain on the market,” he said.

August 10, 2023

FDA Denies Marketing of Myblu Menthol

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on July 10 issued a marketing denial order (MDO) for Myblu Menthol 2.4 percent, an e-cigarette product made by Fontem US. The order prohibits the company from marketing or distributing this product in the United States.

“Thorough scientific review of tobacco applications is a key pillar under FDA’s role to protect the public from the dangers of tobacco use,” said Matthew Farrelly, director of the Office of Science within the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “This application lacked the scientific evidence needed to demonstrate that the product provided a net benefit to the public health that outweighs the known risks.”

Among other shortcomings, the application presented insufficient scientific evidence to show that the menthol-flavored e-cigarette products provided an added benefit for adults who smoke relative to tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, according to the FDA.

Fontem US may resubmit a new application to address the deficiencies for the product subject to this MDO.

To date, the FDA has authorized 23 tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products and devices. Last year, the FDA issued MDOs to Fontem US for several other Myblu products, which are the subject of ongoing litigation.

July 10, 2023

Bill Threatens Menthol and Nicotine Plans

The U.S. House Committee on Appropriations may spoil the Food and Drug Administration’s plans to ban flavored cigars, ban menthol cigarettes and limit nicotine levels in cigarettes, reports Halfwheel.

On May 17, the committee, which is responsible for allocating funds to various government entities, including the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, unveiled the draft of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food And Drug Administration, And Related Agencies Bill.

The proposed language says that FDA cannot use any of the money Congress allocates for it to ban menthol or set nicotine levels, effectively preventing the agency from carrying out the regulations.

The relevant passages are:

SEC 768. None of the funds provided by this Act or provided from any accounts in the Treasury of the United States derived by the collection of fees available to the agencies funded by this Act, may be used by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to finalize, issue, implement, administer, or enforce any rule, regulation, or order setting a tobacco product standard that mandates a maximum nicotine level for cigarettes.

And:

SEC 769. None of the funds provided by this Act, or provided from any accounts in the Treasury of the United States derived by the collection of fees available to the agencies funded by this Act, may be used by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to finalize, issue, or implement any rule, regulation, notice of proposed rule- making, or order setting any tobacco product standard that would prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes or prohibit characterizing flavors in all cigars and their components and parts.

Anti-tobacco activists were aghast. “This bill is a special interest gift to the tobacco industry that would result in more kids addicted to tobacco and more lives lost, especially Black lives,” wrote Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement. “These shameful provisions give the tobacco industry everything it wants from Congress in exchange for its campaign contributions.”

The bill is in its early stages and is likely to undergo many modifications.

May 18, 2023

‘Mimic Menthols’ Soar Following Flavor Ban

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s (RJR) “California compliant” cigarettes, which contain an artificial, flavorless cooling chemical, have proven a big hit among smokers in the wake of the state’s ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products, according to an article in Politico.

By March, sales of the new cigarettes were on track to replace nearly half of the menthol sales compared to last year, according to an expert cited by Politico who tracks cigarette sales trends.

RJR sold 2.8 million packs of Camel-branded menthol cigarettes and 2 million packs of Newport-branded menthol cigarettes in California in March 2022, according to Alex Liber, an assistant professor in the department of oncology at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine who studies tobacco sale trends.

This year, the company sold 1.4 million “California compliant” Camel branded cigarette packs and about 800,000 “California compliant” packs of its Newport brand.

According to RJR, the new products don’t violate California law because they don’t have a distinguishable taste or aroma other than tobacco. California law defines a flavored tobacco product as any product that has a “distinguishable taste or aroma, or both, other than the taste or aroma of tobacco, imparted by a tobacco product or any byproduct produced by the tobacco product.”

Some of RJR’s new products, like the Camel Crisp, contain a lab-made chemical called ethyl menthane carboxamide, or WS3. That chemical has less of the minty odor than menthol, but it provides the same cooling, soothing sensation as conventional menthol cigarettes.

Other new “California-compliant” cigarette products don’t list WS3 as an ingredient. The company considers many of its ingredients to be propriety and is required to list them only under a general description of “natural and artificial flavors.”

The success of RJR’s “mimic menthols” comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepares to ban menthol cigarettes nationwide this year.

Menthol cigarettes make up nearly 40 percent of U.S. cigarette sales and are particularly popular in minority communities, with an estimated 90 percent of Black smokers using menthol products.

The California Department of Public Health said it is aware of the new products, but doesn’t have the power to enforce the ban.

April 20, 2023

Tag: menthol