title: Custom Mentholation of Commercial Cigarettes for Research Purposes.
abstract: In the U.S. menthol remains the sole permitted characterizing cigarette flavor additive in part because efforts to link menthol cigarette use to increased tobacco-related disease risk have been inconclusive. To perform definitive studies, cigarettes that differ only in menthol content are required, yet these are not commercially available. We prepared research cigarettes differing only in menthol content by deposition of L-menthol vapor directly onto commercial nonmenthol cigarettes, and developed a method to measure a cigarette's menthol and nicotine content. With our custom-mentholation technique we achieved the desired moderately high menthol content (as compared to commercial brands) of 6.7 ± 1.0 mg/g (n = 25) without perturbing the cigarettes' nicotine content (17.7 ± 0.7 mg/g [n = 25]). We also characterized other pertinent attributes of our custom-mentholated cigarettes, including percent transmission of menthol and nicotine to mainstream smoke and the rate of loss of menthol over time during storage at room temperature. We are currently using this simple mentholation technique to investigate the differences in human exposure to selected chemicals in cigarette smoke due only to the presence of the added menthol. Our cigarettes will also aid in the elucidation of the effects of menthol on the toxicity of tobacco smoke.
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Ian C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: MacGregor
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Stanfill
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Sydney M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Douglas J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Jenny M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Hanft
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Hyoshin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Robyn R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kroeger
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Marielle C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Margaret E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Tefft
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park.
authors.forename: Pamela I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Exposure Research Laboratory, Battelle, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Stephanie S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Buehler
keywords: Cigarette tobacco; Human exposure; Matched cigarettes; Menthol; Nicotine; Tobacco control