Sources: Menthol & Flavored Tobacco Products
Data Sources for the Menthol & Flavored Tobacco Products Position Statement
This page provides data and information sources for the coalition's position statement titled: "Menthol & Flavored Tobacco Products".
A policy to end the sales of menthol cigarettes nationwide could save 650,000 lives in the U.S., including over 250,000 Black lives.
Sources:
Issabakhsh et al. Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Tobacco Control journal June 2022
Levy et al. Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Tobacco Control journal September 2021
Reduce Initiation
Flavored tobacco products are commonly the first nicotine products used by youth.
Nearly 80% of high school and middle school students who currently use tobacco use a flavored product.
Source: CDC and National Youth Tobacco Survey, data from 2021
81% of teens age 12-17 who ever used a tobacco product used a flavored product first.
Source: Research studies on flavored product impacts cited in 2021 Truth Initiative fact sheet "Flavored tobacco use among youth and young adults"
Most common flavor types among high school students who used any type of flavored e-cigarette in 2020 were: fruit (73.1%), mint (55.8%), menthol (37.0%), and candy, desserts, or other sweets (36.4%).
Source: Truth Initiative: 2021 Truth Initiative fact sheet "Flavored tobacco use among youth and young adults"
Make Quitting Easier
Menthol and other cooling, numbing additives make it easier to inhale, harder to quit.
Menthol and similar additives reduce the irritation from smoking and nicotine, making menthol products more appealing to new and young users.
- Menthol reduces the harshness of smoking or vaping by creating a cooling effect on the mouth and throat.
- Menthol suppresses the cough reflex.
- Menthol allows people who smoke and vape to inhale more deeply, drawing in more nicotine and more toxic chemicals from the product.
Menthol flavoring contributes to greater nicotine dependence due to the unique impacts of menthol on airways and brain receptors.
- Menthol interacts with the same brain receptors that nicotine does.
- Menthol increases the number of nicotine receptors in the brain and increases the intensity of nicotine withdrawal.
Sources:
FDA Scientific Review of Effects of Menthol in Cigarettes on Tobacco Addiction: 1980-2021
American Thoracic Society Patient Education: What is Menthol?
NIH: National Cancer Institute Blog, June 2022: ""Menthol also interacts with nicotine in the brain to enhance the addictiveness of nicotine, making it harder for people to quit smoking" - Rachel Grana Mayne, Ph.D., a program director in NCI's Tobacco Control Research Branch."
50% of teens age 12-17 who smoke use menthol cigarettes.
Source: Data from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use & Health in Delnevo et al. "Banning Menthol Cigarettes: A Social Justice Issue Long Overdue” Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2020.
Protect Communities
Menthol cigarettes & tobacco products disproportionately harm people of color and LGBTQ people.
All other flavored cigarettes were banned in 2009.
Source: FDA website, including: "Menthol and Other Flavors in Tobacco Products"
The tobacco industry targets communities of color and LGBTQ communities with menthol products, particularly the Black community.
Sources:
“Stopping Menthol, Saving Lives” report from multiple organizations. Feb. 2021.
CDC Commercial Tobacco and Health Equity webpages, search this collection for topics containing the title "unfair and unjust practices".
About 85% of Black smokers use menthol products.
Source: 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, cited in Delnevo et al. "Banning Menthol Cigarettes: A Social Justice Issue Long Overdue" Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Oct; 22(10): 1673–1675. Sept. 2020. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa152
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among Black Americans. Lung cancer death rates in Black males are 15% higher than those of white males. Prohibiting menthol tobacco products could close that gap in about 5 years.
Source: “How New Tobacco Control Laws Could Help Close the Racial Gap on U.S. Cancer” Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Council on Foreign Relations
In 2020, 54% of lesbian & gay smokers and 49% of bisexual smokers used menthol, compared with 42% of heterosexual smokers.
Source: Goodwin RD, Ganz O, Weinberger AH, Smith PH, Wyka K, Delnevo CD. Menthol Cigarette Use Among Adults Who Smoke Cigarettes, 2008-2020: Rapid Growth and Widening Inequities in the United States. Nicotine Tob Res. Mar 22 2023;25(4):692-698. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntac214
Learn more about Policies to End the Sale of Flavored Tobacco
Massachusetts, California, and over 180 U.S. municipalities already prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.
Sources:
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. States & Localities That Have Restricted the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products.
Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Municipalities Prohibiting the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products.