A ban on menthol cigarettes

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed rules for banning menthol cigarettes and all flavoured cigars.

About Menthol cigarettes:

• Menthol cigarettes are flavored with menthol, which triggers the cold-sensitive nerves in the skin.
• Menthol has a cooling and anesthetic (or pain killing) effect.
• This also decreases the cough reflex and can soothe the dry throat feeling that many smokers have.
• As a result, menthol smokers may inhale more deeply, hold the smoke in the lungs longer, and get more exposure to the dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke.
• Menthol is a flavor additive with a minty taste and smell.
• In addition to tasting good, it has a cooling and painkilling effect.
• Cigarette manufacturers add it to cigarette filters to cover up the unpleasant taste of tobacco and make cigarettes more appealing.

What are the health risks of flavored cigars?

• Flavored cigars, or cigarillos, come in flavors like cherry, grape and vanilla. They are typically available at convenience stores and gas stations for a very low price.
• Like menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars were not covered by the 2009 flavor ban. Cigars are not regulated in the same way as cigarettes.
• Removing these products would be an important step in reducing the overall impact of tobacco on public health, especially in communities where they are popular.

How would a similar ban be likely to play out in India?

• If India were to ban menthol and other flavoured cigarettes, the impact might be limited, given that chewing tobacco and bidi are the most common forms of tobacco use.
• India has 7 crore tobacco users aged 15 and above, as per the last available Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2016-17) — 18% of the population uses smokeless tobacco, 7% smoke, and 4% use both.
• Banning products has logistical issues as well. “Banning is not the solution. Things will be smuggled in.”

How many young Indians are tobacco users?

• Tobacco use among 15-24-year-olds has been reducing in India, from 18.4% in GATS-1 (2009-10) to 12.4% in GATs-2 (2016-17), a relative reduction of 33%.
• On the other hand, there has been an increase in tobacco use among American youth, driven mostly by e-cigarettes.
• More than 1 in 4 high school students used tobacco product in the previous 30 days in 2018, with e-cigarette use increasing from 11.7% to 20.8% among high school students from 2017 to 2018, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• In India, e-cigarettes are banned.
• A recent study from Canada shows that after menthol cigarettes were banned, 8% more menthol smokers quit smoking than non-menthol smokers.
• Another modelling based study from Singapore, where use of flavoured cigarettes is predominant, showed that in 50 years, smoking prevalence will increase from 12.7% to 15.2% if flavoured cigarettes are not banned, go down by 10.6% if there is a complete ban, and remain the same if there is a partial ban.