Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Oct 26, 2006 -- Menthol and non-menthol cigarettes are equally harmful to the blood vessels and lungs, but menthol smokers have a tougher time quitting, according to a recent study.

The researchers say the findings may partially explain why African-American smokers -- who for a variety of historical and cultural reasons, including targeted advertising by the tobacco industry, are more inclined to smoke menthols -- have lower rates of smoking cessation than Caucasian smokers.

Heeding advice to switch to a non-menthol brand might actually make it easier to quit, the study authors suggest, and possibly reduce racial and ethnic disparities in tobacco-related disease rates. "At a policy level, regulation of tobacco additives, such as menthol, has been proposed as a way to reduce tobacco addiction in the U.S.," they write in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California at San Francisco, and his colleagues examined more than 1,500 smokers recruited for another study in 1985.

Back then, 63 per cent of participants preferred menthols and 37 per cent favoured non-menthol cigarettes. Menthol preference was strongly related to ethnicity, with 89 per cent of African-Americans preferring menthols compared with only 29 per cent of Caucasians.

By the year 2000, those who smoked menthols were significantly more likely to still be smoking than non-menthol smokers: 69 per cent versus 54 per cent. Most of this difference was explained by the fact African-Americans were both more likely to smoke menthols and less likely to quit smoking than Caucasians.

The more cigarettes people smoked, the more likely they were to have declines in lung function and blockages in the arteries supplying their heart. But whether the cigarettes were menthol or not did not appear to make a difference.