Rizla Menthol Chill Flavour Cards Infusions - Box of 25

Product Information

See below for a description of the range of tactics used by tobacco companies to exploit loopholes in the legislation and circumvent the EU menthol ban. Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. In September 2021 a PHE spokesperson told the Bureau that testing of “products from a range of manufacturers” including JTI will begin in October and conclude by the end of the year. This will be more than 18 months since the ban came into force. (The investigation has since been taken over by the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, after PHE was axed on 1 October.) The ban on menthol-flavoured tobacco is the latest step in a Government tobacco control strategy designed to reduce youth uptake of smoking and to encourage and support quitting amongst smokers,[2] helping achieve the Government ambition to achieve a smokefree England by 2030.[3] Research on menthol, cited by the Government,[4] has demonstrated that: P. McGreevy, California bans flavored tobacco sales in response to a surge in teen use, Los Angeles Times, 28 August 2020, accessed September 2020

The rules would come into effect one year after the final publication of the regulations (not yet provided). 3 4 This time period is similar to the EU ban which the tobacco industry exploited whereas the Canadian ban was implemented within six months. 5 It is more likely than not that the availability of menthol cigarettes increases the likelihood of experimentation and regular smoking beyond the anticipated prevalence if such flavoured cigarettes were not available. A leaked document seen by the Bureau and OCCRP reveals the Swedish government referred 21 varieties of cigarette owned by JTI to the commission for testing in June 2020. Progress has been slow, partly because it is the first time this procedure has been used, and the testing is ongoing. The EU told the Bureau it would "take further action" against the tobacco companies if they were breaking the menthol ban.

What Next for Menthol in Europe?

Cigarette flavours, excluding menthol, were banned US-wide in 2009 as part of the Tobacco Control Act. At this time menthol represented nearly one third (27%) of the cigarette market. 7 8 By 2018, 36% of cigarettes sold in the US were menthol, and less than 1% of the US population lived in areas where menthol cigarettes were banned. 8 9 House of Commons Library, Prohibition of tobacco displays, Briefing Paper, 2020, accessed March 2020 a b c M. Zatoński, A. Herbeć, W. Zatoński et al, Characterising smokers of menthol and flavoured cigarettes, their attitudes towards tobacco regulation, and the anticipated impact of the Tobacco Products Directive on their smoking and quitting behaviours: The EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe Surveys, Tobacco Induced Diseases, 2018;16 Contributors GF and MCW are PIs of the study. CNK conducted data analysis, wrote the original draft manuscript, prepared the final version, and is the guarantor. FTF and PD supervised. All authors contributed to reviewing and editing and approving the final manuscript. The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first global public health treaty, recommends banning menthol tobacco products. Numerous countries, including Brazil and Canada, have done so. 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. Canadian legislation, for example, is more comprehensive, prohibiting menthol as an ingredient in cigarettes, most cigars, papers and filters.

When Congress banned all flavors in cigarettes — with the exception of menthol — in 2009, many smokers switched to flavored cigars, undermining the healthy intention of the flavor ban, the FDA says. Cigars come in kid-friendly flavors like chocolate, honey, grape, cherry, vanilla and more. Regulating flavored cigars is also important, according to Dr. David Levy, professor of oncology in the School of Medicine at Georgetown University who worked on the study that predicted how many lives would be saved with such a ban. a b M.Banks, Member states urged to do more to enforce new tobacco legislation, eureporter, 1 April 2021, accessed August 2021Japan Tobacco International (JTI) – which owns Sterling, Benson & Hedges and Sovereign – has been able to work around a ban imposed in 2020 that was intended to prevent young people from taking up smoking cigarettes. Competitors have called for governments to investigate the company’s new “menthol reimagined” products. There is evidence that prohibiting the sale of menthol containing cigarettes will be effective both in reducing youth initiation and in encouraging quitting: A joint investigation by the Bureau and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) can reveal new details of how confusion across Europe means that, almost 18 months after the ban came into force in the EU and UK, nobody knows for sure whether certain types of cigarette are covered by the ban. A breach of the ban could potentially be a criminal offence. Previously unreported documents show the tobacco industry attempting to press public health authorities as well as mudslinging between cigarette makers accusing each other of undermining the ban. BAT launches new range of vape products ahead of menthol ban, Convenience Store, 7 May 2020, accessed June 2020 a b c European Commission, Directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014, accessed March 2020

Tobacco & smokers accessories: smokers demand value, Grocery Trader, 27 July 2021, archived 15 August 2021, accessed November 2021 a b c d Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Hidden Agenda: Tobacco Industry Interference with State and Local Policy, 2022, accessed October 2022 a b c d e f Food and Drug Administration, Tobacco Product Standard for Menthol in Cigarettes, 5 April 2022

Supplementary Data

Unlike other EU countries, menthol’s share of the market grew in Poland and the UK after the ban was announced in 2016. Since May 2020, cigarettes and roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco with a characterising flavour of menthol have been banned in the European Union (EU) owing to the European Tobacco Products Directive (EU TPD). Other characterising flavours were banned in 2016. Cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, heated tobacco and tobacco accessories are exempt from the ban. 1 a b K. Paul, Imperial rolls out adapted products to retain menthol shoppers, Asian Trader, 13 May 2020, accessed May 2020

In September 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Coalition for Fairness had submitted a request for a referendum to overturn the Californian ban. 23 The organisation did not provide details of its members, but the newspaper noted that ban was proposed by Attorney Aaron Agenbroad who has previously worked for RJ Reynolds (now BAT) and Jaime Rojas, a spokesman for a tobacco industry campaign to overturn a ban on flavoured tobacco in San Francisco. 23 RJ Reynolds also ran a television ad campaign against the ban. 23As also observed in Canada, we found that most pre-ban menthol smokers switched to non-menthol cigarettes, which is to be expected given the addictive nature of smoking. 12 However, one-third of menthol smokers reported continuing to smoke menthol cigarettes after the ban, which is considerably higher than in Canada (19.5%). 12 Consistent with this finding, a cross-sectional survey in England found that 15.7% of adult smokers reported smoking menthol cigarettes after the menthol ban (July 2020–July 2021). 30 a b c d e M. Paul, Minister calls on EU to act against tobacco firms ‘undermining’ menthol ban in Ireland, Irish Times, 30 May 2020, accessed June 2020 Once described by the industry as “good starter products”, menthol cigarettes have a minty taste that is less harsh and easier to inhale, making them appeal to many younger smokers. Metrics show around 241,000 people who would otherwise have given up are still smoking because they switched to new menthol brands instead of quitting via vaping, nicotine replacement or simply going cold turkey.