ReviewTobacco control2011
Menthol: putting the pieces together.
Review in Tobacco control, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perceptions and Experiences with Flavored Non-Menthol Tobacco Products: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Pooled it
- E-Cigarette Nicotine Delivery Among Young Adults by Nicotine Form, Concentration, and Flavor: A Crossover Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Role of sweet and other flavours in liking and disliking of electronic cigarettes.Tobacco control · 2016Trial
- Conversations with African Americans Regarding a Ban on the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Population coverage and comprehensiveness of flavoured tobacco sales restrictions in the USA, 2010-2023.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- Use of Flavored and Modified Risk Smokeless Tobacco Products Among American Indian Adults.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
- MMP12 deficiency attenuates menthol e-cigarette plus house dust-mite effects on pulmonary iron homeostasis and oxidative stress.Respiratory research · 2025Article
- More than a "characterizing flavor": Menthol at subliminal levels in tobacco products.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Review
- Biomimetic Lipid Raft: Domain Stability and Interaction with Physiologically Active Molecules.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Public Perceptions of the Food and Drug Administration's Proposed Rules Prohibiting Menthol Cigarettes on Twitter: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Article
- A thematic analysis of smokers' and non-smokers' accounts of E-cigarettes.Journal of health psychology · 2022Article
- Global market trends of flavor capsule cigarettes and menthol (non-capsule) cigarettes: An ecological analysis using commercial data across 78 countries, 2010-2020.Tobacco induced diseases · 2022Article
- Smoking cessation strategies used by former menthol cigarette smokers after a menthol ban.Addictive behaviors · 2021Article
- Prior Daily Menthol Smokers More Likely to Quit 2 Years After a Menthol Ban Than Non-menthol Smokers: A Population Cohort Study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2021Article
- Restricting Sales of Menthol Tobacco Products: Lessons Learned from Policy Passage and Implementation in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth, Minnesota.Health equity · 2021Article
- Association of Cigarette Type and Nicotine Dependence in Patients Presenting for Lung Cancer Screening.Chest · 2020Article
- Assessing cigarette packaging and labelling policy effects on early adolescents: results from a discrete choice experiment.Tobacco control · 2020Article
- The actual and anticipated effects of a menthol cigarette ban: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Ban on menthol-flavoured tobacco products predicts cigarette cessation at 1 year: a population cohort study.Tobacco control · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo integrate information on cigarette companies' understanding and use of menthol as summarised in published research based on previously internal tobacco industry documents with results from large population-based surveys of tobacco use and other independent sources. DATA SOURCES: Papers published in this supplement of Tobacco Control, together with papers identified using PubMed searches.
resultsTobacco companies shaped consumer perceptions of menthol cigarettes. Menthol is not just a flavouring agent. Cigarette companies use menthol's ability to mask irritation and provide sensory effects to make menthol cigarettes appeal to youth and health-concerned smokers, in part because menthol makes low-tar cigarettes more palatable. Consistent with targeted marketing, youths, women and African Americans disproportionately smoke menthols. There appear to be complex interactions with addictive effects of nicotine. The ubiquitous addition of menthol by tobacco companies to over 90% of all tobacco products, whether labelled 'menthol' or not, demonstrates that menthol is not simply a flavour or brand. Menthol imparts sensory characteristics to cigarettes and has a complex interaction with nicotine that affects smoking behaviour whether it is perceived or not, or whether cigarettes containing menthol are marketed as 'menthol' or not. Adding menthol increases fine particles in cigarette smoke, which have immediate adverse effects on the risk of heart attack.
conclusionInformation from industry documents, confirmed by independent scientific literature, consistently demonstrates that menthol increases population harm from smoking by increasing initiation and reducing cessation in some groups. Menthol facilitates and increases smoking, which causes disease and death.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.