Cigarettes are just plain bad, as we all know by now. But what about the ones that contain menthol? Are they worse? A panel of experts is mulling menthol and trying to come up with some advice for the Food and Drug Administration on whether menthol should be forbidden as an additive. Young people seem to gravitate to menthol-flavored cigarettes, and there’s evidence menthol may make it harder for smokers trying to quit.

It turns out that tiny amounts of menthol are even added as a subtle flavor-enhancer to many cigarettes that aren’t labeled as menthol types.

Should menthol be banned —- just as Congress has banned other flavorings in cigarettes? Tobacco industry representatives say taste is the only thing that distinguishes menthol cigarettes from regular one — they aren’t more harmful.

The use of menthol started accidentally, after mint crystals got left in a smoker’s tin of rolling tobacco overnight years ago.

The mint in menthol cigarettes may be natural or synthetic or a combination of both. Natural mint is crystalized from steamed distilled oil of the corn mint plant. Some 99 percent of the mint comes through in the smoke.

So how does the stuff get put on cigarettes? A bunch of ways. Sometimes, it’s applied to the foil that is used to wrap the cigarettes. It’s also sprayed on the tobacco, and even injected into the tobacco paper or the filter.

After a few weeks for aging, Michael Ogden of R.J. Reynolds says the effect was found to be the same pretty much regardless of method, according to smokers who volunteered for taste tests.

Ogden says testers describe the menthol smokes using terms like “cooling sensation, minty flavor and medicinal flavor.”

Menthol can be misleading. “Menthol leads to the perception of an increase in nasal airway openness but in fact there is no actual change and (some studies have shown) minor constriction,” Ogden says

R.J. Reynolds is the maker of Kool and Salem, once the leading menthol brands. Now, Newport dominates the market. It’s from Lorillard, whose Scientific Director William True can sound like someone on Top Chef when he describes how the company assesses menthol.

True says the company taste experts sample packs the way some people test fine wine. They are sensitive to such things as a cigarette’s early draw, the tobacco’s papery or woody flavors, whether it’s bitter or sweet, has a later draw or an after taste.

But it isn’t menthol’s taste that is under scrutiny at the hearing.

The scientific advisory panel wanted to know what properties in mentholated cigarettes attract young people, African Americans, and other ethnic groups. Newport is the top menthol cigarette for adolescents, according to the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. The thinking is that menthol mellows the harshness of tobacco, which makes it easier for initiates to inhale and others to inhale more deeply.

True objected strenuously. “Absolutely not,” he says. “Our product developers do not use menthol in any shape or form to cover, mask or minimize that harsh taste. The most significant items that impact the harsh taste of the cigarette are the tobacco blend, the moisture level of the blend and the filter ventilation.”

The manufacturers of menthol cigarettes also deny that young people and ethnic groups are targeted with promotions. Industry representatives couldn’t explain why menthol smokers tend to smoke fewer cigarettes, or why cancer rates are higher among African American smokers 70 percent of whom smoke menthol but smoke fewer cigarettes per day than non-menthol smokers.

“Internal studies do not indicate that menthol cigarettes are smoked any differently or more intensely than non menthol,” according to Lorillard’s William True. “These studies reinforce the overwhelming weight of epidemiology literature that menthol and non menthol convey similar risk of chronic disease.”

Article from npr.org.

The Tobacco act had forced the stores in Nanaimo to take the small flavored cigars and cigarettes off their display cases. Some retailers put the large flavored cigars in their place, as the law does not cover them. Terry McNabb, owner of the Subway Convenience Store on Departure Bay Road, revealed that it is a misuse of time and money. He revealed that the producers have put in more tobacco in cigars, in order to make them bigger. Also, they removed the filters and put flavors like grape and cherry in them.

McNabb revealed that he was aware that a ban is going to be imposed and, therefore, he had chucked out the stock a month ago.

Employee of Occidental Liquor Store on Selby Street, Jeannie McCormick, said that the flavored cigarillos are being sent back to the Companies and flavored cigars are taking their place.

She said that they were asked to get rid of the cigars with filters.

Gary Holub, a Spokesman with Health Canada disclosed that the law applies to small flavored cigars, flavored blunts and cigarettes. She stated that the law has ordered the store owners to keep this product out of the shelf because they were attracting the youth.

topnews.ae

Johnson Creek — Christian Berkey was a nearly two-pack-a-day smoker when he heard about electronic cigarettes, a device that vaporizes a solution of water, nicotine and flavoring without the smoke and the combustion. Berkey went on the Internet and ordered the device. “I was stunned. I took a puff, and it gave me the same experience as cigarettes,” Berkey said. “It looked like smoke coming out, but you can’t smell it. It addressed the tactile sensation of smoking.” There was one problem.

“I was not thrilled by the taste,” he said. “Chinese smoke juice had a chemical aspect to it.”

Berkey decided he could do better. He wasn’t worried about perfecting the pen-like device, which carries a battery and usually has an LED light on the end. He believed the solution to a successful smoking experience was to make the smoke juice taste better.

Berkey went to work, testing various formulas and trying to improve the taste. That was in November 2007. By February 2008, he started to see some results. Two months and countless variations later, he found the formula he liked.

Unlike the Chinese version, which contains countless ingredients, Berkey’s formula was simple, using only seven ingredients.

In July 2008, Berkey quit his job as a manager of an Apple retail store and took the plunge.

He started to talk about his product on online forums devoted to e-cigarettes. He offered consumers free samples. The feedback he was getting was good.

“They loved it,” he said. “No one wanted to touch the Chinese stuff.”

Ramping up

That was Berkey’s “aha moment.” He cashed in his 401(k) and started his business, called Johnson Creek Enterprises.

“It was not an easy decision, but I did it,” Berkey said.

Berkey convinced Heidi Braun, another Apple employee, to join him. A non-smoker and an asthmatic, Braun wasn’t exactly the ideal business partner for an e-cigarette smoke juice business.

“But I trusted Christian’s ability to come up with a business plan,” she said.

From that humble start, Johnson Creek Enterprises has grown to 14 full-time employees, has a thriving business that expects to generate $2 million in sales this year, and is looking to move into bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and taverns with sales of e-cigarettes and the company’s Johnson Creek Original Smoke Juice.

And the two did it with no advertising.

At their cramped headquarters in a Johnson Creek industrial park, Berkey, the CEO, and Braun, the chief operating officer, are proud of the quality controls they have in their business. The smoke juice is prepared and put in small bottles in a “clean room,” a controlled environment where products are manufactured, where lab technicians wear head-to-toe lab coveralls and goggles.

The company claims to be the first company to produce smoke juice in the United States. It lists its ingredients on every bottle, uses child-resistant caps on the bottles, and shrink wraps the bottles for extra safety.

Berkey and Braun say business is so good, they plan to add as many as 12 to 14 more employees in the months to come. And they are looking for a bigger building to handle their needs.

Johnson Creek Enterprises produces 10 different flavors in four nicotine strengths for the firm’s Johnson Creek Original Smoke Juice line. And it offers six flavors in three nicotine strengths for the Red Oak, propylene glycol-free smoke juice line.

A 1-ounce bottle of smoke juice costs $19.95. A half-ounce bottle costs $9.95.

Regulators take notice

The business is not for everyone. The Food and Drug Administration conducted a lab test of electronic cigarette samples it said contained carcinogens and toxic chemicals, such as diethylene glycol (DEG), an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Moreover, the FDA warned that smoke juice and e-cigarettes are being marketed and sold to young people, and contain no health warnings. The flavors, the FDA said, “may appeal to young people.”

The FDA study, Berkey said, did find DEG but in trace amounts. Asked whether the FDA had tested Johnson Creek smoke juice, Berkey said he could not comment.

“I know regulation is coming, and it’s fine,” Berkey said. “We definitely look forward to working with the FDA.”

Berkey and Braun also are anticipating July 5, when state businesses must go smoke-free. The company has an exclusive agreement with Blu electronic cigarettes, and hopes to convince the owners of bars, restaurants and other public places to sell the e-cigarettes and their smoke juice in their establishments.

“We have a lot of folks who are interested in this,” Braun said.

The new law does not forbid the use and consumption of e-cigarettes, but both Berkey and Braun agree their venture will only succeed if they educate the public about the device and their smoke juice.

Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of Smoke Free Wisconsin, isn’t buying it. Johnson Creek’s efforts to get into the restaurant and bar business by selling the e-cigarettes and the smoke juice may confuse people.

“And it’s appalling they are trying to get kids addicted to nicotine,” she said.

Berkey understands that. Puffing on an e-cigarette, he and Braun argue that people should educate themselves on the product.

“This is an alternative. It’s better than smoking,” Berkey said.

From jsonline.com, June 21, 2010

Domestic and international tobacco growers are gathering in Jakarta today for a two-day meeting aimed at formulating a strategy to fight against the adoption of a ban on flavored cigarettes under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Indonesian Tobacco Alliance (Amti) and the International Tobacco Growers Association, a US-based nonprofit growers association, on Sunday urged the Indonesian government and the governments of neighboring countries not to adopt Articles 9 and 10 of the framework that effectively ban flavored tobacco products.

Sudaryanto, the chairman of Amti, which organized the meeting, said banning flavored cigarettes could cost Indonesian growers up to $450 million per year and threaten millions of jobs.

He said an independent US ban on flavored cigarettes in place since last year had already cost growers here $270 million.

“If other countries across the globe take the same step, then we will bear bigger losses than that,” Sudaryanto said during an interview with the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

“[Today] we will hold a meeting among tobacco growers and buyers in Asia, along with the ITGA, to discuss the plan to ban flavored cigarettes. Our goal is to urge the Indonesian government and other governments to think about the workers involved in the tobacco industry.”

Growers from countries such as Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines are expected to attend the event.

Indonesia produces about 250 billion cigarettes a year, and some 93 percent are clove cigarettes, or kretek . Exports of clove cigarettes to the United States were estimated to be $450 million to $500 million a year prior to the ban.

The US Food and Drug Administration banned flavored cigarettes in September, saying they encouraged younger people to smoke.

The Indonesian government has filed a formal trade dispute with the World Trade Organization in April, claiming the ban was protectionist because it did not include menthol cigarettes, most of which are produced in the United States.

There are 1.5 million clove farmers across the country and 3.5 tobacco farmers, based on Amti’s data.

ITGA president Roger Quarles said banning flavored cigarettes would cause the industry enormous pain.

“This will not only impact Indonesia, but also world’s cigarette industries,” Quarles said.

From thejakartaglobe.com, by Arti Ekawati, June 21, 2010

Many and new ideas about how to decrease smoking among American inhabitants appears since the Food and Drug Administration has taken over the regulation of tobacco use. One of the many other ideas is to ban flavored cigarettes and cigars.

Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA, explained: “Flavored cigarettes are a new gateway for many children and young adults to become real smokers.”

This is the main cause why they decided to prohibit these kinds of cigarettes. However there was approved before a legislation which bans minors from smoking.

Anti-tobacco researchers declared that they recently found that 11 businesses were failed in Charleston alone for selling cigarettes to minors. Such cases are met every day in many cities across the country.

Researchers explained that with the last anti-smoking legislation gets the job done, instead of creating severe penalties for those who sell to children. That’s why FDA decided to put into place a new law that bans flavored tobacco because, somehow, that is the cause for teens smoking.

In general, kids start smoking because bad parenting and a poor work ethic. That’s mean that only adults are guilty of increasing number of smokers among children.

Researchers can’t understand why the FDA thinks that putting a ban on flavored cigarettes will modify anything when businesses are still selling tobacco products to minors, indifferent of flavor. This is like telling that since the law against murder isn’t working we are going to ban all knives. Still the FDA doesn’t stop there, it will acts against smoking till will have good results.

Almost all scientists consider that even cigarettes packs attract kids into smoking. That’s why they proposed to put the image of a diseased lung on cigarette packs.

What they haven’t accounted for is the loss in tax dollars that is set to follow this ban on flavored tobacco. Some states are foretold to lose up to $140 million in tax money from the banning of flavored smoking products.

As it is known, the tobacco center at the FDA has issued numerous fees on tobacco corporations that fund the center’s very existence.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, it is predicted that by 2013 these fees will bring in up to $500 million annually.
In general, tobacco companies are censured with sales taxes much higher than alcohol or any other products on the market. And almost all people think that this is fair because the rise in health care costs because of tobacco-related illnesses.

Unfortunately they don’t pay attention on alcohol and fast food effects which lead to many health problems such as liver disease and heart disease.

American teens believe that smoking cigarettes is riskier than using illicit drugs or binge drinking, a new government report shows.

That perception may increase the likelihood that they’ll experiment with alcohol or illegal substances, the report authors said.

“We are on the right track with cigarette smoking and need to keep raising awareness among teens about the dangers of other substances,” Pamela S. Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), said in a news release from the agency. “Understanding that perception of harm is a strong predictor of potential substance use among young people can help guide the development of substance prevention messages.”

Responses from 44,979 adolescents, aged 12-17, who took part in the 2007 and 2008 SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that teens’ perception of cigarette-related risk was constant among all groups, but there was considerable age- and gender-related variation in perception of risk associated with other types of substances.

Among the key findings:

* Nearly 70 percent of all respondents believed smoking one or more packs of cigarettes per day posed a major health risk.
* Only 40 percent of participants believed binge drinking (having five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week) posed a major risk, and only 34.2 percent thought smoking marijuana once a month posed a major risk. Using cocaine once a month was seen as highly risky by 49.7 percent of the adolescents, while 50.9 percent believed using LSD once or twice a month was highly risky.
* Girls were more likely than boys to associate great risk with smoking one or more packs of cigarettes a day, having five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week, and smoking marijuana once a month.
* Boys were more likely than girls to perceive great risk from trying heroin once or twice.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers advice on how parents can prevent substance abuse in children.
SOURCE: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, news release, Dec. 17, 2009

JAKARTA, KOMPAS. com – The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), admonished Anggun, as the Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for allowing her tour concert this year to be sponsored by a cigarette company. Anggun reacted by stating her position at the State Ministry Office of Women Empowerment, Jakarta, Friday.

As reported by the media, Komnas PA has stated their objection over Anggun’s tour concert this year, which is sponsoded by a cigarette company, mainly because Anggun is the Goodwill Ambassador of FAO who bears the mission to fight famine and poverty, while cigarettes are one of the cause of poverty.

Reacting on Komnas PA’s admonition, Anggun regrests the actions they’ve taken to express their objection. “They sent a letter to FAO, then to my management. Suddenly I receive a lot of letters from America and other countries. I wonder why Komnas PA didn’t write to us first,” said Anggun at the State Ministry Office of Women Empowerment.

“Have they ever seen me smoking? Even if other people smoke, I never asked them to. It’s their choice of life-style. It’s not my life-style. So if they’rea accusing me of promoting smoking, what’s the proof? I’m not endorsed by a cigarette company personally. Almost all events in Indonesia are related with the cigarette industry. Even some sport events are sponsored by cigarette companies. The people can judge between what’s good and bad,” explained the Javanese woman with the full name of Anggun Cipta Sasmi.

Anggun confessed that she didn’t know the details of her contract. She continued, I’m just the singer in the concert. She continued her confession that she had asked the sponsors to cut down on the cigarette promotions in the concert.

“Furthermore, the stage won’t even have logos of cigarette brands, and the sponsor isn’t related with the artist,” said the mother of one. “If there’s an event, my manager signs a contract with a local promotor. I’ve been contracted to perform in five concerts, so as a singer I have to honor the contract. But I have asked the cigarette company to cut down their promotion in my concert,” she said.

According to Anggun, the admonition from Komnas PA is misdirected. “They’re accusing the wrong party. And what hurts me is that being the FAO Goodwill Ambassador I’ve been tackled by my own nation. Though I’ve never given Indonesia reason to be ashamed. Maybe the admonition shouldn’t be directed at us. But the rules should be changed. It’s not our fault. They’re blaming the wrong party,” she said.

And again she protested, “Why must I be dragged down by Indonesia? In the future, I must be more careful. But, like I said, in Indonesia it’s something ordinary,” she concluded.

20 November 2009

In September, the clove cigarette vanished from shelves across the country as a part of a new federal ban on cigarettes that taste like fruits, herbs, candy or other flavors deemed too appealing to children. The FDA’s new power to regulate tobacco led to the ban and will create some of the most monumental changes in how — and what — people smoke all over the country.

The band of clove smokers is small in South Florida. But as their cloves diminished, stick by stick, worries flared about how this new ban would affect the local culture in a place where partyers can still puff at nightclubs, in a state that has chosen not to levy taxes on tobacco.

“What Hollywood is to actors, Miami is to cigars,” said William Carroll, manager at Vilar Cigar Shop in South Miami. “We wonder if its cloves first, then what’s next?”

Vilar Cigar smells like roasted coffee and boasts more than 200 types of tobacco. Less than 1 percent of buyers wanted cloves, Carroll said, so it made little difference profit-wise. The shop easily gave them up but remains wary about the future.

Signed in June, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Act gave retailers, manufacturers, and distributors three months to get rid of their flavored cigarettes — or face warning letters, fines or prosecution.

Word spread quickly. Old customers went to Carroll and bought 10 packs at a time, knowing this might be the last time they ever made a purchase there. Soon, they will have even more company.

NO MORE `SLIMS’

Ever smoke a “slim” or light cigarette? In a year, cigarette packs will no longer be able to advertise as such — because health experts say those words give the false illusion that they are less deadly than a regular cigarette.

The FDA also has the power to reduce or restrict certain additives to tobacco products — including nicotine. Such reductions will make it easier to wean folks from their addictions, said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.

“My perspective as a physician and a clinician is that it’s going to improve health,” Fiore said of the new plan. “This was a significant and important step.”

YOUTH MARKET

Flavored-cigarette smokers were singled out first because they are disproportionately young. The FDA estimates that about 23 percent of 17-year-old smokers use them — but only 6 percent of adults.

Menthol was spared because it’s the stick-of-choice for many adults — and the change could have been too catastrophic for addicts, according to FDA documents. The feedback and response that the FDA receives from this niche ban could help shape the next batch of restrictions, according to spokeswoman Kathleen Quinn.

The FDA’s strategy is based on treating smoking, the country’s leading preventable disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The center estimates that smoking causes 440,000 deaths a year in the United States — one in five total deaths.

SOUTH FLORIDA

The state health department estimates that about 15 percent of Miami-Dade County residents smoke, a tad below the state and national average. And 10 percent of local high-school students have ‘fessed up that they illegally lit up.

Chipi, 20, admits to being a statistic, one of that 90 percent of smokers who starts as a teenager. She was a high-school sophomore the first time someone offered her a clove.

It immediately relaxed her. The smell was soothing. The flavor masked the bitter taste of tobacco. There was a nice crackle at the end.

The FDA posits that teens start with candy-like flavors before moving on. But Chipi never stopped. She began having one Djarum Black a day, which was more than enough because the taste is so strong. The vice cost her $8 for a pack.

“I wasn’t able to afford them until I started working,” she said.

`CLOVE CULTURE’

Along the way, Chipi met counter-culture hipsters, goths, and college professors who also shared her love.

“We created that sort of clove culture,” Chipi said. “Once a day or on the weekend when you go out, when you see someone smoking one and you smell that smell, you automatically have a conversation about where you buy yours and what flavors you like.

“Now that conversation has shifted to a sadder note.”

They talk about how they feel their community was targeted because it was exclusive. Or whether they want to risk buying the cigarettes over the Internet (Quinn of the FDA said the agency is not interested in prosecuting individuals). Or if they are willing to try new flavored “cigars,” which are currently excluded from the ban.

Said Chipi: “We’re all figuring out what to do.”

By ROBERT SAMUELS
rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com, 11.10.09

It’s incontrovertible: Tobacco smoke, if used as directed over a prolonged period, kills people.

The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco tells us one reason why smoking is still so prevalent. In a recently study the group found that nearly 30% of the cigarettes being used near city high schools were contraband — that is, illegal and ultra-cheap. Contraband smokes cost about eight times less than the legal kind that you’d buy over the counter in a variety store.

Yet nobody seems to quite want to step out and name this problem for what it is: Cowardice, on the part of politicians, bureaucrats, aboriginal leaders and a provincial police force that will do anything, just about, to avoid enforcing the Criminal Code of Canada on native reserves.

The Internet is rife with advertisements for cheap, “Indian Smokes.” So are provincial highways, here and there. The people who sell these cigarettes are flouting the law. So are those who buy them. But it’s easier for government to look the other way.

Three months ago, provincial police in Haldimand briefly tried to shut down an illegal smoke shack along Highway 6.

The smoke shack had been set up on private property, not reserve property, against the landowner’s wishes. There was a complaint and police responded. They were met by 20 aboriginal protesters. The OPP backed off.

According to the smoke shack’s operator, Six Nations people never surrendered the land upon which Highway 6 was built, back in the 19th Century.

Therefore he was within his rights to use it as a venue for his smoke shack, he figured. The law and the current property owner’s rights be damned.

Most fair-minded Canadians deplore the continuing inequity that afflicts aboriginal people in this country.

What more of us need to say, more loudly (‘us’ in this context meaning all Canadians, whatever our race) is that the segregationist, racist reserve system is at the heart of the inequity.

The heart of apartheid in South Africa was two systems of law, with distinctions based on race. We have that in Canada.

Each time police deal with aboriginal lawbreakers differently than they would if the suspects were white, black, Asian or East European, they uphold Canadian apartheid.

Contraband smokes are a small piece of a much bigger problem, in other words. In their avoidance of the bigger problem the authorities are reduced to wringing their hands about the smaller one.

They should not.

Of course police and political leaders should avoid stoking violence. Peaceful means should always be exhausted, compromises found. But at the end of the day, the law must be enforced.

Surely there are ways of applying pressure to aboriginal leaders, perhaps financial, to persuade them to root out the illegality in their midst?

And perhaps there are means of law enforcement that do not involve the threat or possibility of lethal force? Ten OPP officers may have been outnumbered in Haldimand. Fifty big men, heavily armoured and carrying only batons and shields, might not have been.

The law exists for a reason. It should enforced, without fear or favour. Aboriginal people also have a right to peace, order and good government.

By Michael DenTandt, Owensoundsuntimes