The ban on menthol in Europe: how effective is it?

Banning menthol has been effective in increasing quit attempts among smokers, as well as reducing consumption of menthol products, according to a study published in the journal Tobacco Control, which calls on governments to close regulatory loopholes that still allow the use of menthol tobacco products.

The ban on menthol cigarettes and rolling tobacco was implemented across the European Union from 20 May 2020, following the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) of 2014. To measure the effectiveness of such a measure, the researchers observed the smoking behaviour of a sample of 1,326 people, representative of the Dutch population, at three specific time points: before the ban, between February and March 2020 (wave 1), after the ban, between September and November 2020 (wave 2) and between June and July 2021 (wave 3).[1].

More attempts and more stops among menthol consumers

The results of the study show that the proportion of menthol consumers among smokers significantly decreased between wave 1 and wave 3, from 7.8% to 4.4%. Furthermore, the ban seems to have pushed menthol consumers to try to stop their consumption. Thus, while 49.6% of non-menthol tobacco smokers reported having made at least one serious attempt to quit smoking during wave 2 or wave 3, this proportion climbs to 66.9% among menthol consumers. Furthermore, at wave 2, 17.8% of menthol smokers had stopped smoking, compared to only 10.2% of non-menthol tobacco smokers. At wave 3, this proportion increased to 26.1% for menthol consumers, and to 14.1% for others. The results also showed that these successful smoking cessations were more frequent among women and people with moderate incomes.

Loopholes in regulations allow industry to circumvent ban

Among menthol tobacco smokers at the time of the first wave, 40% of them switched to non-menthol cigarettes at wave 3, 33% reported continuing their use of menthol cigarettes, while just over 26% of them reported having stopped their tobacco use. The high proportion of menthol users reporting continuing to use menthol products despite the ban is explained by the fact that the European Directive prohibits the use of “characterizing” flavors, leaving the door open for the industry to market new tobacco products, perceived as menthol by consumers, but not sold as such. Furthermore, manufacturers have also deployed on European markets a number of alternatives to reduce the effectiveness of the ban measure. For this reason, the researchers stress the need to strengthen the law, and propose a total ban on menthol.

FT

[1] Kyriakos CN, Driezen P, Fong G, et al, Impact of the European Union's menthol cigarette ban on smoking cessation outcomes: longitudinal findings from the 2020–2021 ITC Netherlands Surveys, Tobacco Control Published Online First: 26 September 2022. doi: 10.1136/tc-2022-057428