Debate Sharpens Over Menthol Cigarettes

March 31, 2010 -- Representatives from three major tobacco companies,
speaking before a committee tasked with advising the federal government on
tobacco regulation, defended menthol cigarettes against charges that they put
smokers' health at greater risk than regular cigarettes.
"Menthol does not make cigarettes more harmful," says William R. True,
senior vice president of Lorillard, the maker of the best-selling menthol
cigarette, Newport. Representatives from R.J. Reynolds and Altria, the parent
company of Philip Morris USA, also spoke.
Several public health experts, meanwhile, argued for a total ban of the
additive, referring to its role in cigarettes as "sweetening the poison."
So began the second and final day of the Tobacco Products Scientific
Advisory Committee's inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C. The committee,
formed following the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco
Control Act in June 2009, has a year to review available research -- both
publicly available studies as well as unpublished tobacco industry documents --
in order to determine where the balance should lie.
"We need to review all the evidence and get insight into the scope of the
research that has not been published," says committee chairman Jonathan M.
Samet, MD, of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern
California.
The committee spent the afternoon hashing out the types of information it
would require in order to make its recommendations. Much of what they hope to
review concerns industry marketing practices, the chemical makeup of menthol
and what effects it has on human physiology, as well as any role it might play
in a person's decision to start smoking or their efforts to quit.
A decision to ban menthol outright would have a huge impact on the tobacco
industry, as menthol cigarettes account for approximately a quarter of the
market. But, argue advocates of such a ban, the FDA has already banned all
other flavored cigarettes.
"There's no distinction, no logic" to allowing menthol cigarettes to remain
on the market while other flavors are banned, says Philip Gardiner, PhD, of the
University of California's Tobacco Related Disease Research Program.





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