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Menthol cigarettes ban 2020: why they are being banned in the UK, and when the law changes
Menthol cigarettes are to be banned in the UK this year, as new legislation comes into force. The ban comes as part of an effort to reduce the number of smokers and prevent young people from taking up smoking.
Menthol cigarettes and rolling tobacco will be withdrawn from shelves from 20 May 2020. The ban stems from the EU Tobacco Product Directive, which prohibits cigarettes and tobacco with characterising flavours such as menthol. The legislation also bans skinny or 'slim' cigarettes from UK stores.
An appeal against the law change was attempted by Philip Morris, the manufacturer of cigarette brands such as Marlboro, but it was rejected by the European Court of Justice.
The move has been praised by tobacco control charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), who told the Liverpool ECHO in October that outlawing menthol tobacco will deter more young people from taking up the habit. A spokeswoman from ASH said the ban will entail the following:
“No person may produce or supply a cigarette or hand rolling tobacco with:
(a) filter, paper, package, capsule or other component containing flavourings;
(b) a filter, paper or capsule containing tobacco or nicotine; or
(c) a technical feature allowing the consumer to modify the smell, taste, or smoke intensity of the product."
Source: The i, 22 April 2020
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French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients
French researchers are planning to test nicotine patches on coronavirus (COVID-19) patients and frontline health workers after a study suggested that nicotine might reduce the risk of contracting the virus.
The team at Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital questioned 480 patients who tested positive for coronavirus, 350 of whom were hospitalised while the rest with less serious symptoms were allowed home. The researchers found that of those admitted to hospital (median age of 65) only 4.4% were regular smokers, compared to 5.3% of those allowed to go home (median age of 44).
Taking into account the age and sex of the patients, the researchers discovered the proportion of smokers among those infected with coronavirus was much lower than that the proportion of smokers in the general population, estimated by the French health authority to be about 40% for those aged 44-53 and about 10% for those aged 65-75.
The study potentially suggests that a substance in tobacco – possibly nicotine – may be stopping patients who smoke from catching Covid-19. However, the researchers insisted they were not encouraging the population to take up smoking, which carries other potentially fatal health risks and kills 50% of those who take it up. While nicotine may protect those from the virus, smokers who have caught it often develop more serious symptoms because of the toxic effect of tobacco smoke on the lungs, they say.
The findings are to be verified in a clinical study in which frontline health workers, hospital patients with the Covid-19 virus and those in intensive care will be given nicotine patches.
Source: The Guardian, 22 April 2020
See also:
Changeux JP, Amoura Z, Rey F, Miyara M. A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications. 2020 April 21
Editorial note:
The reports of a trial in France to see whether nicotine patches can help prevent or help lessen symptoms of COVID-19 should not put smokers off trying to quit, but encourage them to use alternative sources of nicotine to help them stay quit. Smokers are much more likely to succeed in quitting smoking if they use alternative forms of nicotine, such as patches, gum and e-cigarettes which are much less harmful than smoking.
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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