Study Finds Some People May Have a Harder Time Quitting Menthol Cigarettes
A new study has found that it may be more difficult for some people to quit smoking menthol cigarettes, especially some teens and African Americans (who have the highest menthol cigarette use). Recent studies have found that racial and ethnic minority smokers of menthol cigarettes have a lower quit rate than those who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, especially among teens.
One reason could be due to economic factors, as less affluent people are more affected by the price increases of cigarettes, forcing them to smoke fewer cigarettes per day. Menthol cigarettes have been found to provide higher levels of carbon monoxide, nicotine, and cotinine than regular cigarettes, allowing smokers to get the same amount of nicotine when smoking fewer cigarettes.
Menthol is a compound that is either produced synthetically or extracted from mint oils, and activates cold-sensitive neurons in the nervous system. About 25 percent of smokers use menthol cigarettes, and are preferred by about half of teenage smokers and about 80 percent of African-American smokers.
Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D., co-author of the study and a professor of Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, said that menthol produces a cooling sensation, which may help smokers inhale more nicotine per cigarette, becoming more addicted. Smokers who reduce their cigarette consumption often compensate by inhaling more deeply per cigarette. Because menthol cigarettes make the smoke less harsh, they enable smokers to inhale more nicotine.
The researchers examined evidence from 10 published studies that compared smoking quit rates among people who smoked regular cigarettes and menthol cigarettes. Not all of the studies found an effect of menthol on quitting, and there haven’t been any studies that specifically look at menthol cigarettes and quitting smoking. However, the effects of menthol on quitting smoking were larger among younger smokers and were largely restricted to African-American and Latino smokers in more recent studies.
Source: Science Daily, Quitting Menthol Cigarettes May Be Harder for Some Smokers, December 21, 2010
