Menthol cigarettes may face a risk of being banned in Australia if a 12-member US panel decides a crackdown. Australian administration will also be urged to put a ban or at least cut down on the market of menthol cigarettes if any such order is passed in the United States. This could mean a big blow to Alpine cigarettes in Australia and imported brands including Kool, Salem and Virginia Slims.

The US panel is trying to find the truth behind the allegations of anti-tobacco campaigners which state that menthol subjects the throat to a kind of mild anesthetic. This acts as an encouragement for the youth and women to develop the habit of smoking. The US Congress like never before has given exceptional powers to the Food and Drug Administration to control tobacco and forbid additives.

Simon Chapman, a professor at University of Sydney, criticizes the Australian administration for failing to control the use of any tobacco additives and for allowing the company chemists to add just about any legal substance. The internal documents of tobacco companies show that the chemists are adding ammonia which boosts the speed by which nicotine enters the brain causing the smoker to get hooked to cigarettes. This ammonia and other similar agents were being used under the compassionate term ‘processing aids’ helping the companies to hide the secret formula of their flavored cigarettes.

Professor Chapman urged the federal government to pass a law that forces the tobacco companies to display all the additives including their ingredients on the packets.

Source:

The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia