When approached for comment the Department of Health responded that it is committed to the continuation of the menthol ban after the end of the Brexit transition period. In the United States, menthol smoking is highest amongst young people aged 12 to 17, who are more likely to continue smoking and experience greater nicotine dependence than young non-menthol smokers. EU legislation prohibits menthol as a characterising flavour but not as an ingredient in cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, papers or filters, and this ban does not extend to cigars, cigarillos or other accessories such as flavour infusion cards. Just drop the card in to your bottle or jog, wait for few minutes and get ready to be hydrated with Zero calories and tons of flavor!

Menthol: Tobacco Companies are exploiting loopholes in the UK Menthol: Tobacco Companies are exploiting loopholes in the UK

The article also quotes an opinion from the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank with financial links to tobacco companies. Furthermore, the industry used the four year ‘phase-out period’ in the UK to promote new menthol products to retailers through the retail trade press, instead of preparing for the ban by phasing out menthol cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco. The UK government’s most recent Tobacco Control Plan highlights Brexit as an opportunity to review EU tobacco control regulations and identify opportunities for deregulation as a means to improve public health, particularly around e-cigarettes. The UK Government’s ambitions for post-Brexit tobacco control policy will be revealed in its new Tobacco Control Plan due in July 2021. Alternatively, tobacco companies may use it to push for the weakening of existing tobacco control measures.

This likely contributed to the increased market share for menthol and capsule cigarettes seen in the UK during this period. Taken altogether, these activities to minimise the impact of the characterising flavours ban to smokers prove once again that maintaining the status quo and protecting profits remain the key motives of the tobacco industry.

Flavour Fusion Cards – House of Swan Flavour Fusion Cards – House of Swan

Brexit may be an opportunity to close loopholes that the industry has been exploiting to circumvent the EU’s characterising flavours ban in the UK, as well as other areas legislated for by TPD2 including illicit trade, tax and minimum pack size. Tobacco companies attempted to undermine the ban in Canada by heavily promoting menthol capsule cigarettes prior to the ban and thereafter by introducing packaging, filter tip colours, and text descriptors that conveyed menthol-like qualities. An article by The Independent, which has 6% of the national newspaper readership, refers to evidence that menthol cigarettes ‘make it easier to start smoking and are popular with young people’ to explain why the ban is happening. Flavourings, particularly menthol, appeal to young people and are erroneously perceived as less harmful.At Frizc, we combined our expertise with some lucky discoveries to uncover that scents can be trasnferred on any surface. The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first global public health treaty, recommends banning menthol tobacco products. In a submission about TPD2 to the UK government in 2014, PMI said that the menthol ban ‘lacks evidence’ and would not improve public health, in contradiction to the available evidence and evaluations of other similar bans. A ban on characterising flavours in tobacco products (including menthol), as part of the European Union’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (or TPD2), was introduced in the UK in May 2020. STOP is a global tobacco industry watchdog whose mission is to expose the tobacco industry strategies and tactics that undermine public health.

Rizla Menthol Chill Flavour Cards Infusions - Box of 25

The anaesthetic effects of menthol in cigarettes enable smokers to inhale cigarette smoke more deeply into the lungs, thereby increasing exposure to the harmful substances in tobacco smoke. Higher rates of menthol smoking amongst young Black Americans may explain why they experience greater tobacco-related harm than their White counterparts, despite having lower overall smoking rates.This coupled with continued developments of smoking accessories and cigarette brands is likely to perpetuate the incorrect assumption that menthol cigarettes are a ‘healthier’ option than non-menthol cigarettes.

Rizla Menthol Chill Flavour Card - Tesco Groceries

In fact, tobacco control regulations are referred to as ‘unnecessary and meddlesome’ and part of ‘nanny state measures’. Menthol cigarettes represent 10% of the global cigarette market, and represented 21% of the UK market prior to the ban. Now, following the UK menthol ban, tobacco companies continue to evolve and are using ever more sophisticated tactics to exploit loopholes by introducing new products that fall outside the ban, for example accessories sold separately from cigarette packs such as menthol filters (including ones that can slot into filter holes in cigarettes, see Image 1), menthol capsules and even menthol ‘flavour infusion’ cards that can be inserted into packs of cigarettes which take on the flavour and aroma of the card, as well as menthol flavoured cigarette-like cigarillos complete with flavour capsules. While it is unlikely that the evidence-based characterising flavours ban will be reversed in the UK post-Brexit, minimising the evidence on the importance of this ban may contribute to misperceptions that it is over-zealous.

Canadian legislation, for example, is more comprehensive, prohibiting menthol as an ingredient in cigarettes, most cigars, papers and filters. Tobacco companies have long harnessed consumers’ misperceptions about menthol to appeal to new populations of young smokers – a key strategy to securing profits. This is important because media coverage of tobacco control policies influences smokers’ support for policies, attitudes towards smoking and behaviour. Much of the Twitter activity took place around 23 August 2016, and promoted one of two media articles (see here and here) which suggested that the menthol ban in the UK might be reversed post-Brexit. In their coverage of the story, different news publications presented the evidence and rationale for the flavourings ban in very different ways.