Why Non Filtered Cigarettes

Menthol is a chemical compound which is made of natural extract, and when inhaled it gives a cool sensation to the lungs. The flavor of menthol cigarettes is very light, and slim body of the cigarette has made people long for it. There are manufacturers who make only menthol cigarettes, but most of them who create for the masses have both menthol and the regular ones. The most famous menthol brands are the Kool, Salem and Maverick. Marlboro has launched menthol cigarettes recently, too, which is becoming very popular.

Menthol cigarettes were first developed by Lloyd "Spud" Hughes in 1924, though the idea did not become popular until the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Company acquired the patent in 1927, marketing them nationwide as "Spud Menthol Cooled Cigarettes" R.J. Reynolds Company launched the first menthol filter-tip cigarettes in 1956 under the Salem brand^. Less heavily mentholated than Kools, Salems were positioned as an all-purpose cigarette, and captured 0.8% market share within their first year.

Menthol cigarettes are constructed similarly to non-mentholated cigarettes, with menthol added at any of several stages during the manufacturing process. Menthol may be derived from distilled corn mint oil, or produced synthetically. While trace amounts of menthol may be added to non-mentholated cigarettes for flavor or other reasons, a menthol cigarette typically has at least 0.3% menthol content by weight. Lower-tar menthol cigarettes may have menthol levels up to 2%, in order to keep menthol delivery constant despite the filtration and ventilation designs used to reduce tar.
Compared to tobacco blends for non-mentholated cigarettes, a menthol cigarette will tend to have more flue-cured than burley tobacco, and less oriental tobacco.

Green Flavour

WHAT IS MENTHOL?

Chemically, menthol is a monocyclic terpene alcohol. It is a naturally occurring chemical chiefly derived from the peppermint plant (Mentha piperita) or the corn mint (Mentha arvensis), but it can also be synthetically produced. The chemical structure of menthol is shown in Figure 1. Menthol can exist as
one of eight stereoisomers—molecules with identical formulas but different three‐dimensional shapes.

These isomers include menthol, isomenthol, neomenthol and neoisomenthol, each of which can exist asl, also called (‐), or d, also called (+). Each of the tereoisomers has distinct pharmacologic characteristics. The l, or (‐), isomer of menthol is the natural isomer and conveys the typical taste and sensory characteristics of menthol. The d, or (+), isomer is active but less so than l‐menthol
.
Tobacco companies use both natural and synthetic menthol in cigarettes. The natural menthol found in cigarettes (l isomer) is typically crystallized from steam‐distilled oil of the corn mint plant. Synthetic menthol (dl ‐ menthol) is racemic, meaning it contains both the d and l isomers and has different taste characteristics from natural menthol. Some cigarette manufacturers use natural menthol only; others use a mixture of natural and synthetic menthol. Natural menthol has been reported to impart greater cooling and mintness and less sharpness, perhaps due to trace chemicals in the natural extract.

Menthol is added to cigarettes in numerous ways:
(1) spraying the cut tobacco during blending;
(2)application to the pack foil;
(3) injection into the tobacco stream in the cigarette maker;
(4) injection into the filter on the filter maker;
(5) insertion of crushable capsule in the filter;
(6) placement of a menthol thread in the filter;
(7) a combination of the above (

Over time, menthol diffuses throughout the cigarette irrespective of where it was applied. Menthol cigarettes are typically blended using more flue‐cured and less burley tobacco. This is because some of the chemicals in burley tobaccos create an incompatible taste character with menthol.

Manufacturing, marketing, promotion and health consequences

The two injunctions at issue sufficiently specify the activities enjoined as to provide Defendants with fair notice of the prohibited conduct. The district court did not abstractly enjoin Defendants from violating RICO or making false statements, but instead specified the matters about which Defendants are to avoid making false statements or committing racketeering acts: the manufacturing, marketing, promotion, health consequences, and sale of cigarettes, along with related issues that Defendants have reason to know are of concern to cigarette consumers.
This is not a generalized injunction to obey the law, especially when read in the context of the district court’s legal conclusions and 4,088 findings of fact about fraud in the manufacture, promotion, and sale of cigarettes. These injunctions may be broad, but breadth is warranted “to prevent further violations where a proclivity for unlawful 68 conduct has been shown.”
Defendants complain that the volume of findings in this case actually make understanding the injunctions more difficult and chill speech because some of the district court’s findings present “express prohibitions” whereas others, like the use of white filter paper for cigarettes, “simply reflect the district court’s disapproval” of aspects of Defendants’ business practices without finding the conduct fraudulent.
This objection answers itself, as the plain terms of the injunctions prohibit only conduct that would constitute a racketeering act or a “material false, misleading, or deceptive statement or representation,” not all activities the court mentioned in its findings.

Menthol Cigarettes

“Opposition to Menthol Cigarettes Grows” (Business Day, June 5) misses the point that the effort to prohibit menthol as a flavoring in cigarettes is but the first leap toward a national ban on all cigarettes.

Almost 30 percent of adult smokers prefer menthol products, meaning millions of Americans would suddenly and arbitrarily be denied their preference of cigarette. They would almost assuredly turn to the black market to obtain the product they want.

History makes clear that prohibitions like this do more harm than good. The failed social experiment of alcohol prohibition is a good lesson. There is ample evidence that criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations already find the profit from black market cigarettes easy to generate and conceal. And that’s when the product is legal everywhere, and the only differences in availability are the taxes from one jurisdiction to another.

It is inevitable that this problem will be worsened if an outright ban were put in place.

Depriving thousands of hard-working Americans — mom-and-pop convenience stores, tobacco farmers and everyone else in small companies that support the manufacture of menthol cigarettes — of 30 percent of their business would be disastrous.

Coupled with the fact that the scientific research to date is inconclusive as to whether menthol products are any better or worse than nonmenthol products, it is clear that the advocated ban on menthol cigarettes is misguided and has the very real potential to harm our national and economic security.

Vietnam opens non-smoking week

Vietnam launches the inaugural National Non-Smoking Week today in an effort to raise awareness of the consequences of smoking and protect young people from such dangers.
During National Non-Smoking Week, all forms of advertisement, trade promotion and sponsorship by tobacco companies will be prohibited.
In addition, cigarettes retail prices and import taxes will see a hike and aban on selling cigarettes to people under 18 years of age will also go into effect.
The week will end on Saturday.
The Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will work with the World Health Organization to implement the week to mark World Non-Smoking Day, May 31.
The survey also showed that 56 percent of men and close to 1.8 percent of women in Vietnam smoke regular cigarettes , 31 percent of whom are young people.
The number of tobacco-related deaths in Vietnam hits 40,000 on average annually.

Malawi: Turmoil As Tobacco Prices Fluctuate

Malawi's tobacco industry has been in turmoil after wildly fluctuating prices led protesting farmers to force the closure of the auction floors.
This year's tobacco sales started on a very high note with prices reaching the phenomenal price of 11 dollars per kg. The high prices did not last, however.
The tobacco auction floors opened in Malawi's capital city Lilongwe in March with a kilogram of tobacco fetching between six and eleven dollars. This gave hope to farmers who have struggled to make any profit from the trade over the last few years.
Malawi's cancellation of subsidies for Camel cigarettes production a number of years ago has meant that farmers have to cover the full cost of production.
It costs the average tobacco farmer one dollar to produce one kilogram of the crop, according to Malawi's ministry of agriculture. But for many years, prices moved between 70 and 90 cents per kilogram.
This placed the heavy burden of perpetual debt on farmers as they failed to settle loans to purchase farm inputs. Most farmers cut production and others diversified to different economic activities.
Then the unexpected hike in prices happened. Godwin Ludzu, a farmer from Malawi's central district of Kasungu, was among the lucky ones who sold up to 30 bales of tobacco at 10 dollars per kilogram on the first day of trading. He was ecstatic about the profits he made.
"The price was very good. I will be able to settle all the loans I incurred in producing the tobacco," said Ludzu. He has been growing tobacco for six years. The auction prices this year are the best he has ever come across.
However, the exceptional prices did not last. On the second day, the flicker of hope died. Prices have since fluctuated, with the value of the leaf dropping to between 2.30 dollars and 60 cents for the same quality crop.
The statutory Tobacco Control Commission's (TCC) general manager Godfrey Chapola confirmed that prices started off high because of a tobacco shortage on the global market. He said that that some countries which grow tobacco have stopped while others have reduced production levels, causing consumption to be higher than supply.
The fluctuation in prices has affected farmers badly. Champhira Gondwe, a farmer from the northern district of Rumphi, went to the Mzuzu auction floors in the north of Malawi. He could not sell any of his produce because he found that the tobacco prices were set very low.
"They were being pegged at the maximum price of 2.30 dollars. I couldn't let my hard-earned produce go at such a low price when our counterparts in Lilongwe sold their tobacco at 10 dollars," said Gondwe.
The Mzuzu floors were closed on April 14 after violence broke out between the farmers and the guards at the market. The farmers physically blocked the buyers from continuing with sales. The TCC then suspended the sales.
The farmers were not ready to let go of their demand for higher prices after hearing about the worldwide shortage of tobacco.
Sales of tobacco were suspended on all four auction floors in April but the floors reopened again in the last week of April.
President Bingu wa Mutharika, himself a tobacco farmer, has previously accused buyers of fixing prices but the buying companies - from the U.S. and Switzerland -- have denied the allegations.
The southern African country is a major exporter of Camel cigarettes, accounting for five percent of the world's total exports and two percent of total production on the planet. In terms of burley tobacco, Malawi produces some 20 percent of the global total, according to the World Bank.
The country derives up to 70 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from agriculture, and the tobacco industry is responsible for 15 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). About two million of the country's 13 million people depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihood.