Lung Cancer Study Finds Mentholated Cigarettes No More Harmful Than Regular Cigarettes..

March 27, 2011

The critical issue - we must alter the menthol concentration so cigarettes will not be so appealing to young smokers..

Menthol Cigarettes - alter the menthol concentration so cigarettes will not be so appealing to young smokers..; U.S. FDA for our children must limit the availability of menthol cigarettes..

Smokers of mentholated cigarettes are no more likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers, according to a new, very large, prospective study of black and white smokers published online March 23 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In fact, contrary to a popular hypothesis, menthol smokers in this study had a somewhat lower risk of developing and dying from lung cancer than non-menthol smokers.

Lung cancer rates are higher among blacks than whites, and use of mentholated cigarettes, also higher among blacks, has been suggested as a possible explanation. Some studies have raised the possibility that menthol influences smoking behavior, causing deeper inhalation for instance, or that it increases dependency or affects the biology of the lung. Others have suggested that menthol makes it harder to quit smoking.

PAPER: Lung Cancer Risk Among Smokers of Menthol Cigarettes
William J. Blot ((e-mail: blotw@iei.us), Sarah S. Cohen, Melinda Aldrich, Joseph K. McLaughlin, Margaret K. Hargreaves, Lisa B. Signorello, JNCI Vol. 103, Issue 10, 2011, ABSTRACT/ Full TEXT..

Lung cancer rates are higher among blacks than whites, and use of mentholated cigarettes, also higher among blacks, has been suggested as a possible explanation. Some studies have raised the possibility that menthol influences smoking behavior, causing deeper inhalation for instance, or that it increases dependency or affects the biology of the lung. Others have suggested that menthol makes it harder to quit smoking.

To explore these issues, William J. Blot, Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn., and the International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, Md., and colleagues conducted a prospective study among 85,806 people enrolled in the Southern Community Cohort Study, an ongoing multiracial study in 12 southern states. Within this cohort, they identified 440 lung cancer patients and compared them with 2,213 matched controls (other people in the study with the same demographics, such as race, age, and sex, but without lung cancer).

They found that menthol cigarettes were associated with a lower lung cancer incidence and fewer lung cancer deaths than regular cigarettes. For instance among people smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day, menthol smokers were about 12 times more likely to have lung cancer than never-smokers while non-menthol smokers were about 21 times more likely to have the disease. The differences were statistically significant.

Reference: Lung Cancer Study Finds Mentholated Cigarettes No More Harmful Than Regular Cigarettes, NCI,3/23/2011.