One million adults smoke menthol-flavoured cigarettes in Britain despite ban

One in seven adults who smoke in Great Britain report using menthol-flavoured cigarettes despite UK legislation that aimed to curb their use, according to a new study by University College, London (UCL) and SPECTRUM researchers.

The study, published in the journal Tobacco looked at survey responses from 66,868 adults in England, Wales and Scotland between October 2020, five months after the ban was introduced, and March 2023.

The researchers found that 16% of adult smokers reported using menthol-flavoured cigarettes at the start of the study period, with the figure remaining fairly stable at 14% by the end of the study – equivalent to one in seven adult smokers or nearly one million people still using menthol-flavoured cigarettes.

Lead author Dr Vera Buss (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Our results suggest the tobacco industry may have used various loopholes in the law to continue to enable people to smoke menthol-flavoured cigarettes.

“To effectively reduce the prevalence of menthol cigarette smoking to near zero, policymakers in the UK should consider closing current loopholes in the legislation. This would mean strictly banning all menthol and similar ingredients in all tobacco-related products, including accessories.”

The legislation introduced in May 2020 banned cigarettes with a “characterising flavour” but did not ban menthol or its derivatives as ingredients in cigarettes and accessories.

Menthol cigarettes are popular among young people as they are perceived to have a taste that is less harsh and easier to inhale. They have also been viewed wrongly as less harmful than non-flavoured cigarettes. The ban that came into force in 2020 aimed to reduce youth uptake of smoking”.

Senior author Professor Jamie Brown (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “The UK’s menthol ban does not appear to have been effective – we have found that there are still around one million people who report smoking menthol-flavoured cigarettes in Britain, 3 years after the ‘ban’ came into force. Nor has there been much sign of progress during that period. For an effective ban, menthol and all its analogues and derivatives should be completely prohibited in all tobacco-related products and accessories.”

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