Menthol cigarettes

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Marlboro Black Menthol ( Japan )

Menthol cigarettes are cigarettes with an intense menthol aroma. Menthol is a naturally occurring essential oil and is found in plant species of the mint genus .

Menthol has been added to tobacco products since the 1920s. When inhaling the smoke, it reduces the sensation of irritation and pain in the respiratory tract . It changes the density of nicotine receptors in the central nervous system. It also changes the metabolism of nicotine and increases its bioavailability. It increases nicotine addiction . The biggest problem with menthol is that it has a cooling and pain-relieving, slightly numbing effect. This makes the normally scratchy tobacco smoke easier to inhale. That makes menthol cigarettes especially attractive for newcomers to smoking.

That is why they are banned in several countries.

Market share

According to the  German Cigarette Association  (DZV), the market shares of menthol cigarettes in 2020 will be very different in different countries: The USA has a well-established menthol market (around 28 to 34 percent market share). In Europe, this type of cigarette is particularly popular in Poland and Finland (each around 24 percent market share).

EU law

In the EU, the use of menthol as a tobacco additive will be banned from May 20, 2020.

The European Union had already voted on new regulations for the Europe-wide tobacco product line in 2014. The regulation is part of the EU Tobacco Directive, which was passed in 2014 and came into force in 2016, but since menthol cigarettes have an EU-wide market share of over three percent, a transition period of four years applied to them. Menthol-flavored pods sold separately are still allowed. The reasoning of the European Court of Justice for the menthol cigarette ban is the protection of health.

The EU directive affects all tobacco products that, in the EU's opinion, would make it easier to get started with a “characteristic aroma”. This applies to both cigarettes and tobacco you can roll yourself. Tobacco heaters and electronic cigarettes with menthol liquid are still allowed.

Tobacco companies have used the transition period innovatively to develop substitute products: aroma cards that can be inserted into cigarette packs and screw-in filters.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BJ Henderson et al .: Menthol Alone Upregulates Midbrain nAChRs, Alters nAChR Subtype Stoichiometry, Alters Dopamine Neuron Firing Frequency, and Prevents Nicotine Reward. In: The Journal of neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. Volume 36, Number 10, March 2016, pp. 2957-2974, doi : 10.1523 / JNEUROSCI.4194-15.2016 , PMID 26961950 , PMC 4783498 (free full text).
  2. ↑ K. Ahijevych, BE Garrett: The role of menthol in cigarettes as a reinforcer of smoking behavior. In: Nicotine & tobacco research: official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. Volume 12 Suppl 2, December 2010, pp. S110-S116, doi : 10.1093 / ntr / ntq203 , PMID 21177367 , PMC 3636955 (free full text) (review).
  3. ^ RJ Wickham: How Menthol Ages Tobacco-Smoking Behavior: A Biological Perspective. In: The Yale journal of biology and medicine. Volume 88, Number 3, September 2015, pp. 279-287, PMID 26339211 , PMC 4553648 (free full text) (review).
  4. ↑ L. Biswas, E. Harrison, Y. Gong, R. Avusula, J. Lee, M. Zhang, T. Rousselle, J. Lage, X. Liu: Enhancing effect of menthol on nicotine self-administration in rats. In: Psychopharmacology. Volume 233, number 18, September 2016, pp. 3417–3427, doi : 10.1007 / s00213-016-4391-x , PMID 27473365 , PMC 4990499 (free full text).
  5. ↑ T. Wang, B. Wang, H. Chen: Menthol facilitates the intravenous self-administration of nicotine in rats. In: Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience. Volume 8, 2014, p. 437, doi : 10.3389 / fnbeh.2014.00437 , PMID 25566005 , PMC 4267270 (free full text).
  6. ↑ "Shameless circumvention" of the menthol cigarette ban? Government investigates violations
  7. ↑ Appendix 1 , in conjunction with Section 4 Tobacco Products Ordinance (TabakerzV) of April 27, 2016
  8. ↑ a b Menthol ban from May 20, 2020. www.Tabak-Börse24.de, December 30, 2019, accessed on March 14, 2020 .
  9. ↑ EU ban on menthol cigarettes: Everything speaks against menthol