Chemical research in toxicology
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The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act empowered the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to study "the impact of the use of menthol in cigarettes on the public health, including such use among children, African Americans, Hispanics and other racial and ethnic minorities," and develop recommendations. ⋯ Similarly, yields of the targeted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in whole smoke from the mentholated nonmenthol cigarettes that were measured in real-time were largely unaffected by their menthol levels. In the Camel Crush cigarettes, however, the VOC yields appeared to increase in the presence of menthol, especially in the gas phase. Although we succeeded in characterizing key mainstream smoke constituents in cigarettes that differ only in menthol content, further study is needed to definitively answer whether menthol affects exposure to selected cigarette constituents and thereby influences harm.