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U.S. tobacco companies have been using a synthetic coolant originally developed for shaving products to replace menthol cigarettes, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News.

California and Massachusetts ban menthol cigarettes, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would like to prohibit them at the federal level, arguing that menthol makes it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.

In the 1970s, the British shaving product company Wilkinson Sword began altering menthol in search of analogs for its shaving products. It sought molecules that would provide the same cooling effect but without the skin and eye irritation sometimes associated with menthol.

Cigarette companies took note and created products using similar molecules to mimic the cooling sensation provided by menthol.

In 2020, the FDA determined that cigarettes with nonmenthol cooling agents, developed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., are substantially equivalent to menthol cigarettes, basically permitting the marketing of them.

Critics contend that the vague legal definition of flavors has allowed tobacco companies to develop and market substitute menthol products.

In challenging fines received in Massachusetts for selling their menthol replacement products, R.J. Reynolds testified that these cigarettes scientifically cannot be a flavored product because they do not activate the taste or olfactory receptors, but only thermoreceptors.

Reynolds also has a lawsuit pending against the attorney general of California based on similar arguments regarding what constitutes characterizing flavor.

Public health advocates have argued for legislation that considers a molecule’s chemical structure and function.

They point to Germany, which bans multiple cooling agent in cigarettes. Belgium and the Netherlands consider molecules’ function in their bans. Canada has a list of approved additives that doesn’t include menthol or any other coolant.

Michael Chaiton, director of research at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, which studies the province’s tobacco strategy, told Chemical & Engineering News that problems arise when lawmakers attempt to regulate things they don’t understand. A better appreciation for how tobacco additives interact with the body would help mitigate their harmful consequences without reliance on semantic arguments about flavor, aroma, and taste, he says.