Menthol's potential effects on nicotine dependence: a tobacco industry perspective

ObjectiveTo examine what the tobacco industry knows about the potential effects menthol may have on nicotine dependence.MethodsA snowball strategy was used to systematically search the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/) between 22 February and 29 April, 2010. Of the a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tobacco control 2011-05, Vol.20 (Suppl 2), p.ii29-ii36
Main Author: Yerger, Valerie B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
addiction
African Americans
Anti smoking movements
Biological markers
Cigarette smoking
Cigarettes
Consumer Behavior
Consumers
Cooling
Documentation
Flavors
Humans
Marketing - methods
Menthol
Metabolism
Nicotine
Nicotine dependence
Public health
qualitative study
Research Paper
Researchers
Smoking
Smoking cessation
Tars
Taste
Tobacco
Tobacco Industry
tobacco products
Tobacco Use Disorder
volatile organic compounds
young adults
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Summary:ObjectiveTo examine what the tobacco industry knows about the potential effects menthol may have on nicotine dependence.MethodsA snowball strategy was used to systematically search the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/) between 22 February and 29 April, 2010. Of the approximately 11 million documents available in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the iterative searches returned tens of thousands of results. We qualitatively analysed a final collection of 309 documents relevant the effects of menthol on nicotine dependence.ResultsThe tobacco industry knows that menthol overrides the harsh taste of tobacco and alleviates nicotine's irritating effects, synergistically interacts with nicotine, stimulates the trigeminal nerve to elicit a ‘liking’ response for a tobacco product, and makes low tar, low nicotine tobacco products more acceptable to smokers than non-mentholated low delivery products.ConclusionMenthol is not only used in cigarettes as a flavour additive; tobacco companies know that menthol also has sensory effects and interacts with nicotine to produce tobacco products that are easier to smoke, thereby making it easier to expose smokers, especially those who are new and uninitiated, to the addictive power of nicotine.
ISSN:0964-4563
1468-3318
1468-3318
DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.041970