Category: Flavors

Groups Urge Ban on ‘Menthol Replacements’

Photo: Валерий Моисеев
Public Health England and other health groups have asked the U.K. government to prohibit the sale of “menthol replacement” cigarettes such as NewSuperking Green and Sterling New Dual, reports Express.
Despite a nationwide ban in the U.K. on the sale of menthol cigarettes, Japan Tobacco International has sold more than £1 billion ($1.33 billion) worth of cigarettes laced with menthol in the past year since the ban went into effect, according to critics.
JTI insists its brands comply with the law. “We no longer sell cigarettes with characterizing flavors (including flavored capsule cigarettes),” the company stated. “Cigarettes with a characterizing menthol flavor have been banned from May 20, 2020. We are confident all our products are fully compliant with U.K. law. Some JTI cigarettes and rolling tobacco sold in the U.K. do still contain very low levels of menthol. This is not prohibited under the law, provided the use of such flavorings does not produce a clearly noticeable smell or taste other than one of tobacco—which they do not.
“The launch by competitors of similar products in EU markets shows they, too, are confident that products with low levels of menthol are permitted by law. All the ingredient information for our new products was shared with the authorities at both U.K. and EU level via the EU Common Entry Gate (EU-CEG) prior to their being placed on the market, so there is full transparency throughout this process. We look forward to providing further information if requested by the authorities.”
Tobacco companies across Europe have been introducing alternatives to their discontinued menthol brands since the EU banned such tobacco products in May 2020. Last year, cigarette manufacturers came under scrutiny in Ireland for supposedly sidestepping the measure.
July 9, 2021
Washington, D.C., Flavor Ban Moves Forward

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The Washington, D.C., council voted to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, reports The Washington Post. The vote passed with an eight-to-five majority after a long debate around concerns that the ban could create more opportunities for police to harass Black smokers and that the ban would be “unfairly targeting a smoking choice preferred by Black residents.”
The bill will now head to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, who is expected to sign it into law.
With this legislation, D.C. joins Massachusetts and other cities across the country in banning menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.
The bill bans the sale of flavored products but does not criminalize smoking menthol cigarettes. The council approved a change to the bill stating that city police do not have the authority to act on their own to enforce the ban. The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs could still call police for assistance, though.
There is one exception: Hookah bars that already have an exemption from the city’s indoor smoking ban can continue offering flavored hookah for use on their premises.

D.C.’s projection that it will lose just $3 million in taxes by banning flavored tobacco products is a heroically wishful one.
Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom research, Reason Foundation
Critics said the legislation’s safeguards against racial injustice are insufficient. “The police remain responsible for arresting those selling untaxed cigarettes,” wrote Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom research at Reason Foundation. “If the bill passes, all flavored tobacco products illicitly sold in the district will be untaxed. Those selling or purchasing these products are vulnerable to police interactions.”
Bentley also pointed to likely loss of tax revenues. “D.C.’s projection that it will lose only $3 million in taxes by banning flavored tobacco products is wishful thinking,” he wrote.
According to Bentley, Massachusetts lost more than $140 million in tax revenues from menthol cigarette sales in the 11 months following its June 2020 ban on tobacco flavors. “Eighty-eight percent of Massachusetts’ lost tobacco sales were made up for by increased tobacco sales in nearby Rhode Island and New Hampshire,” he wrote.
June 30, 2021
Canada: Flavor Ban Could Boost Smoking

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Health Canada has made a “startling admission” that its recent policy to ban the sale of flavored vapor products could contribute to a rise in cigarette consumption, reports Filter, a publication owned and operated by The Influence Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy and human rights.
Into its regulatory impact analysis statement on the intended flavor ban, Health Canada acknowledges that its legislation could lead to an increase in smoking, according to Filter.
“It is anticipated that some dual users who currently use flavored vaping products would not substitute their purchases with tobacco[-flavored] and mint/menthol-flavored vaping products. They would choose to purchase more cigarettes,” the statement reads.
“The statement is very direct. It’s basically saying, ‘We’re Health Canada, and we’re going to do something that kills Canadians,’” said David Sweanor, an industry expert and chair of the Advisory Board for the Centre for Health, Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa.

“The statement is very direct. It’s basically saying, ‘We’re Health Canada, and we’re going to do something that kills Canadians.'”
David Sweanor, chair of the Advisory Board for the Centre for Health, Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa
Matt Culley, a board member of the U.S.-based CASAA, a consumer advocacy nonprofit that promotes smoke-free alternatives to combustible tobacco, said, “The fact that a government can brazenly admit their policy will lead to more smoking and death is wild. It really goes to show how demonized vaping remains.”
The policy appears to be at odds with Canada’s intention to reduce its smoking rate to 5 percent by 2030.
“Our policies have not aligned with the country’s goals,” Darryl Tempest, the executive director and chief advocate of the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA), told Filter. “It is not a public policy that relates to adults or harm reduction or small businesses.”
The country amended its tobacco laws to include vaping products in 2018, and some Canadian provinces have already enacted their own flavor bans.
June 27, 2021
University to Study Impact of Flavor Bans

Photo: Borgwaldt Flavor
A new University of Kentucky College of Medicine study will examine how policies that restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, impact health disparities among vulnerable populations.
A five-year $2.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will support the study on how local policies impact at-risk groups—including communities of color, low-income populations and youth—that are more likely to use flavored tobacco products.
The results could help lawmakers create policies that are more equitable, says the study’s principal investigator, Shyanika Rose, a faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Transformation, assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and member of the Markey Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control Program.
“We already know that stopping the sale of these products can reduce their availability and use in these communities,” said Rose in a statement. “But understanding the impact of policies across race and socioeconomic status will give guidance about what kinds of policies work and have the most equitable benefits.”
Rose says flavored tobacco products, which are more appealing, easier to use and more addictive, have a long history of being disproportionately marketed toward vulnerable communities, particularly African Americans. According to the Truth Initiative, nearly 90 percent of all Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, and more than 39,000 African Americans die from tobacco-related cancers each year.
Currently, U.S. federal laws only prohibit the sale of certain flavored tobacco products. The sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavors of smokeless tobacco, cigars and hookah is still permitted. While the Food and Drug Administration recently announced new steps to implement a ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, the proposal will not eliminate all flavored tobacco products from the market, specifically flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquids.
In the absence of broad-based federal laws, several state and local jurisdictions across the country have enacted their own policies. Rose says about 30 percent of localities with a policy have a comprehensive one that prohibits the sale of all flavors, including menthol, across all tobacco products.
“While the FDA is moving federal policy in the right direction, comprehensive policies that restrict the sale of all flavored tobacco products may be more likely to protect the health of the most vulnerable populations, and this is something this project will investigate,” Rose said.
June 23, 2021
Critics Lambast Canada’s Flavor Ban

Photo: Deyan
Health advocates and vapor industry groups criticized Canada’s proposal to ban all flavored vaping products except for tobacco, mint and menthol. Published June 19 in the Canada Gazette, the draft legislation was criticized for falling short by tobacco control advocates and for going too far by the Canadian Vaping Industry Association (CVA).
The CVA warned that if the flavor ban is implemented, it may push hundreds of thousands of consumers back to smoking or to the black market. “There is mounting evidence that flavors reduce cravings and increase smoking cessation success,” the organization wrote in a press note. “Research from Yale School of Public Health finds that smokers that quit using a flavored product are 2.5 times more likely to be successful.”
“We have repeatedly shared the science on vaping,” said Darryl Tempest, executive director of the CVA. “Regulators are aware of the important role flavors play in the adoption of vaping by smokers. A flavor ban will reduce the appeal of the product and will sentence many smokers to their death. There is sufficient data from regions with flavor bans to provide a clear understanding of the consequences. Flavor bans do little to protect youth and instead increase smoking rates and strengthen the black market.”

A flavor ban will reduce the appeal of the product and will sentence many smokers to their death.
Darryl Tempest, executive director, CVA
ASH Canada, by contrast, described the decision to exempt mint and menthol from the flavor ban as an unacceptable concession to the vaping industry.
“The proposed regulations will not adequately protect Canadian youth from flavored vaping products” said Les Hagen, executive director of ASH, in a statement. “Menthol is the second most popular flavor among youth vapers. A partial ban on flavored vaping products in the U.S. resulted in massive switching to menthol flavored products. We expect a similar result in Canada if these regulations are approved.”
“There is no scientific justification for exempting menthol vaping products,” says Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. “Menthol is the second most popular flavor among youth, tied with mango. We know that flavors are one of the main factors that attract young people to vaping, causing all kinds of health risks in addition to being one of the most addictive substances on the planet.”
The health groups decried the influence of the vaping industry on the debate. The CVA has been the most active of all lobbies on Parliament Hill in May, wrote ASH, citing The Lobby Monitor.
Over 400,000 Canadian youth are using vaping products, according to Health Canada’s latest survey conducted in 2019.
Stakeholders can comment on Canada’s draft flavor regulations until Sept. 2, 2021.
Health Canada is also publishing new restrictions on the nicotine concentration in vapor products. These regulations set a maximum nicotine concentration of 20 mg per mL in vaping products to make them less appealing to youth. The regulations also prohibit the packaging and sale of vaping products if the nicotine concentration of the products exceeds this limit. Manufacturers must adhere to this limit by July 8, 2021; retailers may not sell products that exceed this limit after July 23, 2021.
June 21, 2021
Mixed Results from San Francisco Flavor Ban

Photo: Can Balcioglu
Sales of flavored tobacco products decreased significantly in the wake of San Francisco’s ban, but teenagers were also more likely to take up smoking relative to their peers in other cities, according to two separate studies.
In the summer of 2018, San Francisco residents voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including nicotine vaping products and menthol cigarettes. By January 2019, when the prohibition took effect, almost every retailer in the city was immediately compliant.
A study from researchers at RTI International, Stanford University School of Medicine and the California Tobacco Control Program published in Tobacco Control measured changes in tobacco sales before and after San Francisco’s law prohibiting flavored tobacco products. The study found that sales of all flavored tobacco products—including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes—were virtually eliminated in the city after implementation of the policy, with no evidence of widespread substitution of nonflavored products.
Sales of all flavored tobacco products decreased by 96 percent in San Francisco after implementation of the city law in early 2019. Total tobacco sales also significantly decreased over the same period, suggesting consumers did not broadly switch to unflavored tobacco products.
“A reduction in total tobacco sales in SF suggests there was not a one-to-one substitution of tobacco/unflavored products for flavored products,” the authors wrote.
However, a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that teenagers in San Francisco’s high schools were more likely to take up smoking than teenagers in other U.S. school districts after the city’s flavor ban took effect. (San Francisco later became the first U.S. city to ban sale of all e-cigarettes, but the effects of that were not the subject of the study.)
Prior to the flavor ban, smoking rates in San Francisco paralleled many cities across the country, showing fewer teens using combustible cigarettes over time. After the city enacted its policy, the odds of smoking among its high school students, relative to trends in comparison school districts, more than doubled.
The findings come as other cities are acting against flavored tobacco products. On June 16, the Los Angeles City Council voted to end the sale of flavored tobacco products in the city. The measure covers flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars but exempts certain hookah products.
In California alone, more than 100 cities and counties have cracked down on flavored tobacco products. In 2020, the state acted to end the sale of flavored tobacco products, but the law is on hold because of an effort to overturn it through a November 2022 referendum.
June 18, 2021
BAT Laments Inaction Against ‘Menthol’

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BAT has admonished Ireland’s tobacco regulator for failing to take action against competitors selling new products that may be in breach of the EU ban on menthol cigarettes, reports The Irish Times.
There is “no rationale for the HSE to further delay” its action against tobacco companies that may be breaching the ban, BAT wrote in a letter to the Health Service Executive (HSE) this week. “We are concerned that inaction is leading to more products appearing on the market.”
The HSE said a year ago that it would investigate tobacco companies for allegedly breaching the Europe-wide ban on menthol flavors, which some have allegedly tried to circumvent with techniques exploiting loopholes while marketing them as menthol substitutes.
Japan Tobacco International, for example, launched Silk Cut Choice Green, which it admitted still contained traces of menthol. The company insists Silk Cut Choice Green complies with rules because the cigarettes don’t taste or smell of menthol. Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, also launched a new brand targeted at smokers of its old Marlboro Green but says the new product is legal and menthol-free. BAT did not launch a menthol substitute.
Despite its year-long investigation, the HSE’s Tobacco Control Office has yet to issue any findings.
Ireland’s market for the flavored cigarettes was worth up to €250 million ($304.92 million) before the ban came into force last May.
Tobacco Reporter detailed the industry’s efforts to serve former menthol smokers in the EU with alternative products in June 2020.
June 7, 2021
Demand for Menthol Liquid up After Ban

Photo: Max
A year to the day since menthol cigarettes were banned in the U.K., more than two-thirds of vapor retailers are reporting a rise in sales of menthol-flavored e-liquids, according to a study by the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
The ban last year, which also prevented menthol filters, papers and skinny cigarettes from being produced or sold in the U.K., followed a four-year phasing-out period, which saw smaller packs of rolling tobacco and 10-packs of cigarettes banned in 2017.
The study revealed that more than 70 percent of owners of brick-and-mortar stores and online retail operations said they had seen an uptake in demand for menthol vape products.
And, while fruit e-liquids remained the customer favorite, menthol was the second most popular flavor, according to the survey.
“What we have witnessed in the U.K. is that menthol as an ingredient in vape e-liquids has continued to increase following the combustible menthol ban and is now one of the most important components of all e-liquids,” said Tim Phillips, independent analyst at ECigIntelligence.

Menthol as an ingredient in vape e-liquids has continued to increase following the combustible menthol ban and is now one of the most important components of all e-liquids.
Tim Phillips, analyst, ECigIntelligence
UKVIA Director-General John Dunne said the survey results were a clear indication of the importance e-cigarettes have in helping smokers to quit their habits in favor of vaping, which Public Health England acknowledges is far less harmful than combustible tobacco.
“Our survey of retailers clearly shows that, as menthol cigarettes were removed from sale, vape stores witnessed an increase in sales of the same flavor in e-liquid form,” he said.
“It is not unreasonable to surmise that the majority of menthol e-liquid sales above retailers’ baseline pre-ban were to those who would have previously smoked cigarettes.”
May 25, 2021
Regulatory Environment ‘Manageable’ in U.S.

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Tobacco companies will have plenty of time to adopt to a U.S. menthol ban, if one is ever implemented, according to financial analysts quoted by the Winston-Salem Journal.
On April 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to ban the flavoring in combustible cigarettes and cigars. The agency expects to unveil product standards in 2022. The FDA would then have to submit its proposal, consider comments and prepare a final proposal, which could take multiple years, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi.
That’s not counting expected multiple rounds of lawsuits, some of which could advance to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve. The FDA is required to base its rulemaking on science, and the tobacco industry is likely to challenge the scientific basis for a menthol ban.
“The published science does not support regulating menthol cigarettes differently from nonmenthol … nor does it support that menthol cigarettes adversely affect initiation, dependence or cessation,” Reynolds American said on April 29.

We consider the U.S. regulatory environment to be manageable. We expect any menthol ban, if one comes, to be years and years away.
Michael Lavery, analyst, Piper Sandler
Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog noted that the FDA didn’t also reveal plans to dramatically reduce the nicotine levels in cigarettes during the menthol ban announcement.
“It is not surprising to us given less urgency around this issue, i.e., no court-imposed deadline, but we still think there’s a possibility that something could be announced in the coming weeks/months ahead … as the critical premarket tobacco [product] application process for e-vapor unfolds,” Herzog was quoted as saying.
“Both issues entail a complex and lengthy process that, based on precedent, will likely take several years to be successfully implemented, if at all.”
In 2018, the agency officially announced its intention to require cigarette manufacturers to lower the nicotine levels in their products to nonaddictive levels, but the FDA has not yet acted. In the weeks prior the menthol announcement, speculating mounted that the agency would soon act on its reduced-nicotine plan.
Piper Sandler analyst Michael Lavery said, “we consider the U.S. regulatory environment to be manageable. We expect any menthol ban, if one comes, to be years and years away.”
May 5, 2021
Activist Groups Plead Against Menthol Ban

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Americans for Tax Reform has released a letter signed by 36 organizations representing millions of taxpayers and consumers throughout the United States urging the Food and Drug Administration to reject a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.
The letter notes the social impact of criminalizing an activity undertaken by over 18 million Americans, primarily from minority communities, asserting, “If this proposal were to be enacted, it is inevitable that it would lead to further confrontations between individuals and law enforcement and break down trust even further. In addition, by diverting law enforcement resources to preventing the sale of menthol cigarettes, this policy will reduce the resources available for the prevention and solving of property and violent crimes.”
The letter continues, “We further draw your attention to the fact that any comprehensive analysis of the data from jurisdictions where menthol products have been banned demonstrates that, while the majority of users switch to nonmenthol cigarettes, over 20 percent of menthol smokers moved to purchasing illicit products through the black market. Not only does this put all parties involved at risk of police involvement, the illicit tobacco market has increasingly been run by sophisticated international criminal syndicates, often with links to sex trafficking, money laundering and even, increasingly, terrorism.”
For these reasons, as the letter noted, the U.S. State Department has explicitly called tobacco smuggling, “a threat to national security.”
The letter also recognized the importance of promoting harm reduction over prohibition, writing, “If the FDA wishes to reduce smoking rates, the best way of doing this is not through bans but rather embracing life-saving new technologies to help smokers quit.
“The science is now overwhelming that the most effective way for smokers to quit is through the use of noncombustible reduced-risk tobacco alternatives, ranging from vapor and “heat-not-burn” devices to oral nicotine-delivery systems or moist loose tobacco (which the FDA already allows to be marketed as reducing the cancer risk for persons who make the switch).”
If the FDA wishes to reduce smoking rates, the best way of doing this is not through bans but rather embracing life-saving new technologies to help smokers quit.
Americans for Tax Reform
The letter concluded by urging the FDA to “engage in evidence-based policymaking and embrace new technologies and alternative nicotine-delivery systems that have been proven will be able to save millions of American lives.”
Earlier, the American Civil Liberties Union also sent a letter, signed by 27 civil liberty and racial justice organizations, expressing its concern about the impact on minorities of a menthol ban.
“At this pivotal moment, as the public demands an end to police violence erupting from minor offenses, we call on the Biden administration to rethink its approach and employ harm reduction strategies over a ban that will lead to criminalization,” said Aamra Ahmad, senior legislative counsel for the ACLU.
“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd—only a few years removed from the killing of Eric Garner, a Black man killed by NYPD for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes—the racially disparate impact of the criminal legal system has captured the nation’s attention. It is now clear that policies that amount to prohibition have serious racial justice implications.”
Anti-tobacco activist Stanton Glantz dismissed the argument that getting rid of menthol would lead to more police violence against African Americans as baseless. He accused the ACLU of advocating tobacco positions after taking industry money.
“The ACLU has been carrying the tobacco industry’s water for decades,” Glantz wrote on his blog. The ACLU has opposed clean indoor air laws since shortly after I first got involved in trying to pass them in 1978, arguing against the evidence that secondhand smoke was dangerous and that there was a right to smoke.
“Why? Thanks to a series of reports in the early 1990s by legendary Washington Post investigative reporter Morton Mintz (Nieman Reports, Advocacy Institute), we now know that the ACLU secretly accepted millions of dollars from the tobacco industry,” he added.
May 5, 2021