{"doi":"10.1093/ntr/ntaf234","title":"Commentary Paper on Cooling Flavors in Cigarette and Non-Cigarette Tobacco Products","abstract":"Menthol is a tobacco additive with strong sensory properties and analgesic effects shown to dampen the aversive or irritating effects of tobacco use1,2; these effects may contribute to lower perceptions of health risk and greater appeal and continued use of tobacco products.3 The United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has considered prohibiting menthol as a characterizing flavor from cigarettes and all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) from cigars, and their components and parts. Therefore, it is imperative to increase understanding of the impact of such restrictions, including the effects of menthol and other cooling agents that could be used to replace menthol in the event of such a ban. This commentary examines the role of menthol in cigarettes and the potential impact of alternative cooling agents in the market to replace menthol in tobacco products and circumvent regulation. Much of the research to date has focused on the effect of menthol in cigarettes, and comprehensive scientific reports have concluded that menthol flavor increases the appeal and satisfaction of smoking and is associated with cigarette initiation, progression to regular and continued smoking, increased nicotine dependence, and decreased successful cessation.4–7 People who smoke more frequently believe that menthol cigarettes are less harmful than non-menthol cigarettes.8 Menthol cigarettes have been prohibited in many places worldwide, including Brazil, Canada, the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), Turkey, and specific states and localities in the US. Policies supporting the prohibition have been proposed at the national level in New Zealand and the US. Currently, the laws in the US, Canada, and the EU vary in how they address the inclusion of flavors in tobacco products other than cigarettes, whether combustible or non-combustible. In the EU, the menthol ban applies only to cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco, exempting cigars, cigarillos, and pipe tobacco. In addition, EU regulations exclude menthol accessories that are not sold in the same packaging as tobacco cigarettes, and cigarettes not labeled as “menthol” can still contain menthol if below a threshold. Most recently, Canada employed an alternative strategy by banning menthol as an ingredient, thereby restricting the use of any menthol additive. Beyond North America and Europe, Brazil, Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Singapore have either banned flavors in certain tobacco products or are considering such legislation. As policies have been enacted to prohibit menthol in cigarettes, tobacco companies have exploited loopholes in such regulations, most notably by using synthetic cooling agents in tobacco products to produce similar sensations as those conferred by menthol. Substitutes for menthol, such as synthetic cooling agents, including those commonly referred to as WS compounds (eg, WS-3, WS-5, WS-23), as well as other additives (eg, menthone, carvone), are often marketed as “non-menthol” or “menthol alternatives”.9 Synthetic cooling agents confer sensory effects similar to those experienced by menthol, such as decreasing harshness and increasing palatability, thereby masking the bitterness of nicotine and tobacco, but have not been explicitly included in prior definitions of “characterizing menthol flavor” and are therefore largely exempt in jurisdictions with menthol regulations. Since the implementation of restrictions on menthol cigarettes in the US states of California and Massachusetts, as well as other countries, there has been an increase in cigarettes available on the market that are labeled as “non-menthol” but include synthetic cooling agents.9,10 Therefore, it is critically important, as regulations on menthol in tobacco products are being considered, to examine the impact of these “cooling” flavor product innovations by tobacco companies that aim to circumvent these restrictions. Flavoring additives that deliver minty taste and cooling sensations have ","journal":"Nicotine & Tobacco Research","year":2025,"id":582824,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.955,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":236749,"name":"Andrea C. Villanti","orcid":"0000-0003-3104-966X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":913291,"name":"Michelle K Page","orcid":"0000-0002-5962-8586","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":304696,"name":"Maciej Ł. Goniewicz","orcid":"0000-0001-6748-3068","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326026,"name":"Richard J. O’Connor","orcid":"0000-0003-0644-182X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":318604,"name":"Daniel P Giovenco","orcid":"0000-0001-6256-9612","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383850,"name":"Suchitra Krishnan‐Sarin","orcid":"0000-0002-3272-9782","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":388134,"name":"Krysten W. Bold","orcid":"0000-0002-8012-6118","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432752,"name":"Andrew J. Barnes","orcid":"0000-0002-0357-3934","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":656099,"name":"Simani Price","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292403,"name":"Maansi Bansal‐Travers","orcid":"0000-0002-7944-3570","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":12,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:59.653747Z","pmid":"41263502","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}