Tobacco firms sell menthol products in run-up to ban

Delay in flavoured cigarettes ban was used to promote new products, according to researchers

TOBACCO companies intensified efforts to develop new menthol products in the run-up to a ban on flavoured cigarettes, in an attempt to “move” smokers on to new goods, a study has found.

Menthol cigarettes will be removed from shelves in Britain this week, but new research has found tobacco companies failed to use the four-year phasing-in period from 2016 to prepare for the ban.

Instead tobacco firms exploited a delay in the ban to develop new products, keeping menthol products on the market for as long as possible, rather than phasing them out, researchers said.

Experts claim tobacco companies are using the ban on menthol cigarettes to promote new products. A menthol ban was first agreed in 2014 and originally due to be implemented in 2016, alongside measures such as standardised packaging.

But after intense lobbying, its implementation was put back four years, until this week when it will be implemented amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A new study analysed industry data to track menthol market cigarette share from legislation agreement through to 2018. Researchers also analysed documentary evidence – industry documents, websites and retail publications – to understand tobacco industry activities.

Their results from the Tobacco Control Research Group show that during the grace period the tobacco industry was given to prepare, the UK market share of menthol cigarettes grew rapidly from 14 per cent of cigarette sales in 2014 to over a fifth – 21 per cent – in 2018.

With one in six menthol smokers stating they would quit after the menthol ban, an impact that could reduce UK cigarette sales overall by three per cent, the researchers say the menthol ban will be an important driver in the fight against deaths and illness from cigarette smoking.

Dr Rosemary Hiscock, lead author of University of Bath study, said: “Our findings suggest the tobacco industry was driving sales of menthol cigarettes right up to the ban – a product whose serious health implications had led to the ban in the first place.”

In the paper, the authors argue that the tobacco industry used the delay to develop and introduce new menthol products that will circumvent the ban once it is implemented.

This includes menthol filters and flavour cards that smokers can add to cigarette packs or roll-your-own tobacco pouches to make them minty.

Due to a loophole in the tobacco display ban legislation, these accessories, unlike cigarettes, can be promoted to customers near the cash till in England and Wales – but not Scotland.

Professor Anna Gilmore, director of the Tobacco Control Research Group,

‘It also flies in the face of tobacco company claims that they wish to reduce the harm from smoking’

said: “The way tobacco companies are using the ban on menthol cigarettes to promote new menthol products which are heated rather than burned under- mines the very purpose of this ban.

“It also flies in the face of tobacco company claims that they wish to reduce the harm from smoking. They realise the menthol ban will trigger smokers to quit.

“Instead they seek to move the smokers on to new tobacco products which independent evidence indicates are as dangerous as smoking and from which they make even more profit.”

The addition of menthol to cigarettes takes away some of the harsh sensations of smoking.

Public health experts suggest this can make them more appealing to younger people and could lead them to become more quickly dependent on nicotine in comparison with non-menthol products.