Tobacco industry response to menthol cigarette bans in Alberta and Nova Scotia, Canada
Open accessAbstract
Menthol cigarettes are associated with increased initiation and progression to regular smoking and decreased likelihood of smoking cessation.1–8 Menthol smokers are more likely to be women and adolescents in several countries.9 The Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommend that Parties regulate ingredients that make cigarettes more palatable, including flavouring substances like menthol.10 The Canadian province Nova Scotia became the first jurisdiction to implement a ban on menthol tobacco products in May 2015, and the province of Alberta followed in September 2015.11 These regulations extended existing provincial bans on the sale of flavoured tobacco products to include menthol flavoured tobacco products, with the exception of pipe tobacco and some cigars. Additional Canadian provinces, Brazil, Ethiopia, Turkey and the European Union have passed regulations to ban menthol tobacco products.11 As jurisdictions (including cities, states/provinces and countries) consider bans on menthol tobacco products, real-life contextual data on the industry response to such bans can be helpful in formulating effective bans. For example, when misleading descriptors on tobacco packaging such as ‘light’ and ‘low tar’ were prohibited, the tobacco industry continued to communicate those same misleading health messages to the consumer using colour or other descriptors.12 ,13 Industry tactics to undermine the effectiveness of health warnings on tobacco packaging have included the use of promotional packaging and altered pack size.14 ,15 Drawing on a sample of cigarette packs …
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The single pack presentation permitted only one variant of each cigarette brand, which prohibited the colour-coding of light and mild or menthol variants.
“(The single pack presentation permitted only one variant of each cigarette brand which prohibited the colour-coding of ‘light’ and ‘mild’28–3033 or menthol33 variants).”
From Defending strong tobacco packaging and labelling regulations in Uruguay: transnational tobacco control network versus Philip Morris International (2018) · cites this paper as [33]
The cited paper does not describe a single-pack presentation that permits only one variant per brand. In “Pack colour and brand name descriptors” (page unavailable), it reports the opposite of the attributed menthol point: post-ban replacement packs retained the prominent green colour of menthol packs and substituted “green” for “menthol.” (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Research works printed but not linked: 12
- [1]Nonnemaker J, Hersey J, Homsi G, et al Initiation with menthol cigarettes and youth smoking uptake. Addiction 2013; 108: 171– 8. 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.04045.x 22862154 · DOI
- [2]Hersey JC, Ng SW, Nonnemaker JM, et al Are menthol cigarettes a starter product for youth? Nicotine Tob Res 2006; 8: 403– 13. 10.1080/14622200600670389 16801298 · DOI
- [3]Hersey JC, Nonnemaker JM, Homsi G Menthol cigarettes contribute to the appeal and addiction potential of smoking for youth. Nicotine Tob Res 2010; 12(Suppl 2): S136– 46. 10.1093/ntr/ntq173 21177370 · DOI
- [4]Fernander A, Rayens MK, Zhang M, et al Are age of smoking initiation and purchasing patterns associated with menthol smoking? Addiction 2010; 105(Suppl): 39– 45. 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03188.x 21059135 · DOI
- [5]Delnevo CD, Gundersen DA, Hrywna M, et al Smoking-cessation prevalence among U.S. smokers of menthol versus non-menthol cigarettes. Am J Prev Med 2011; 41: 357– 65. 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.06.039 21961462 · DOI
- [6]Smith SS, Fiore MC, Baker TB Smoking cessation in smokers who smoke menthol and non-menthol cigarettes. Addiction 2014; 109: 2107– 17. 10.1111/add.12661 24938369 PMC4443703 · DOI
- [7]Okuyemi KS, Ahluwalia JS, Ebersole-Robinson M, et al Does menthol attenuate the effect of bupropion among African American smokers? Addiction 2003; 98: 1387– 93. 10.1046/j.1360-0443.2003.00443.x 14519175 · DOI
- [8]Pletcher MJ, Hulley BJ, Houston T, et al Menthol cigarettes, smoking cessation, atherosclerosis, and pulmonary function: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Arch Intern Med 2006; 166: 1915– 22. 10.1001/archinte.166.17.1915 17000950 · DOI
- [12]Cohen JE, Yang J, Donaldson EA Impact of the removal of light and mild descriptors from cigarette packages in Ontario, Canada: switching to ‘light replacement’ brand variants. Prev Med (Baltim) 2014; 69: 120– 5. 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.08.037 PMC4340068 25224153 · DOI
- [13]Connolly GN, Alpert HR Has the tobacco industry evaded the FDA's ban on ‘Light’ cigarette descriptors? Tob Control 2014; 23: 140– 5. 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050746 23485704 PMC3932763 · DOI · Paper page
- [14]Ford A, Moodie C, Purves R, et al Adolescent girls and young adult women's perceptions of superslims cigarette packaging: a qualitative study. BMJ Open 2016; 6: e010102 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010102 PMC4716187 26747040 · DOI
- [15]Mir H, Buchanan D, Gilmore A, et al Cigarette pack labelling in 12 countries at different levels of economic development. J Public Health Policy 2011; 32: 146– 64. 10.1057/jphp.2011.3 21368847 · DOI
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Crosbie, E., Sosa, P., & Glantz, S. A. (2018) · Tobacco control · doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053690 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
- Authors
- Brown, J., DeAtley, T., Welding, K., Schwartz, R., Chaiton, M., Lawrence Kittner, D., & Cohen, J. E.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Brown, Jennifer
- Venue
- Tobacco Control
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2016-07-19
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- e1
- Pages
- e71-e74
- ISSN
- 0964-4563 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-3318
- PMC
- PMC5739865
- OpenAlex
- W2500283069
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 3.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Tobacco Control (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Philip Morris International
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Keywords
- menthol cigarettes, tobacco marketing, tobacco packaging, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Alberta, Nova Scotia, tobacco control
- MeSH terms
- Tobacco Smoking, Alberta, Humans, Menthol, Nova Scotia, Product Packaging, Tobacco Industry, Marketing, Tobacco Products
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