The packaging on Kool brand's"non-menthol" cigarettes and its existing menthols are very similar. Anti-smoking activists argue this is a way to get around any ban on menthol cigarettes by appealing to consumers who like to smoke menthols.
These new"non-menthol" tobacco products mimic traditional menthols; they contain a different chemical additive with a similar cooling effect, and often come branded and packaged, much like their menthol predecessors.Robert Jackler, a Stanford doctor and tobacco marketing expert, calls them,"non-menthol – wink, wink – menthol," meaning that the confusing similarities between menthol and their new substitutes are intentional.
All of that messaging, anti-smoking activists say, is a way to get around any ban on menthol cigarettes by signaling to consumers that they taste very similar."The objective of the tobacco industry is the exact opposite of our public health objective: We want fewer people to die from smoking, they want more people to smoke," saysOne big question is whether these products will be able to get around explicit bans around flavored tobacco and menthol. So far, it's not clear they will.
Either way, the legal dispute over the fate of non-menthol tobacco products in California, he says, will have major implications for how effective any federal ban might be.