Cigarettes with a button - what is it?

Cigarettes with a button - what is it?

So-called “button cigarettes” are cigarettes that have a special capsule with an aromatic composition inside the filter. When you click on the filter in a certain place (on the "button"), the capsule bursts, changing the taste of the cigarette you smoke. Most often, menthol is used as a flavoring agent.

The list of cigarettes sold in Russia with a button is quite large: KENT I switch, Marlboro Ice Boost, Rothmans Demi Click, Winston XStyle Dual Taste, BOND Street Premium Mix and many others. However, in some countries of the world similar cigarettes are prohibited because of their increased harm to health.

Why is smoking hookah ten times more harmful than smoking regular cigarettes? Scientific data.

What harmful menthol cigarettes?

Scientific studies show that menthol contained in cigarettes makes the smoking process more enjoyable - in fact, for the respiratory tract, menthol vapors act as an anesthetic. This is what gives the feeling of a specific "pleasant chill" and allows you to drag on when smoking more.

Unfortunately, menthol affects the metabolism of nicotine, slowing its absorption rate ⁽¹⁾ - a smoking person, trying to get his usual dose of nicotine from a menthol cigarette, begins to smoke faster, while making more powerful puffs. As a result, the lungs get a double blow.

12 times the chance of developing cancer

Since smoking menthol cigarettes make people lighter, smoke enters deeper zones of the respiratory tract and lungs, potentially increasing the risk of cancer. In addition, as we mentioned above, a menthol lover usually smokes more cigarettes a day.

A comparison of active smokers who smoke more packs of cigarettes per day shows that the chance of developing cancer is 12 times higher for those who prefer menthol cigarettes to regular ones ^(2). However, tobacco companies refuse to accept these figures, questioning the mechanics of research.

How to make menthol cigarettes?

Menthol cigarettes first appeared in the United States in the 1920s. The first few decades of their existence, they successfully moved to the market as a means to increase the "level of comfort in the throat" and used in advertising smiling doctors confidently reporting the benefits of smoking.

Note that in menthol cigarettes mint is not contained in tobacco at all, but in tobacco paper or in a filter (as in the case of cigarettes with a button). At the same time, this mint oil is used only in the most expensive brands - in most cases, cheap synthetic flavoring is used.

Menthol cigarette ban

Happy times for tobacco campaigns are long gone. In America, since the 1960s, they were banned from using smiling doctors in advertising, and in the 1990s, regulators in many countries seriously began to study the increased health risks caused by smoking menthol cigarettes.

Brazil became the first country in the world to completely ban flavored cigarettes in 2012, including menthol and button cigarettes. The European Union plans to ban similar cigarettes by 2022. Also, flavored cigarettes are partially banned in the United States.

The main reason for the ban

Initially, menthol cigarettes were thought to increase the chances of developing lung cancer, but tobacco companies put this claim under question ^(3). However, they could not argue the facts that menthol significantly increases the level of dependence on cigarettes and significantly prevents to quit smoking.

Statistics show that menthol cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among adolescents - this trend is especially vivid in the case of “fashionable” thin cigarettes with a button. Unfortunately, the sooner a person starts to smoke, the greater the health risks that he eventually suffers.

Ban menthol cigarettes in Russia

In the US, flavored cigarettes (with the exception of menthol) are banned from 2009, and menthol should be banned until 2020. The Russian Ministry of Health is also actively fighting to smoke - cigarette prices are constantly rising, and they plan to raise the minimum age for selling them to 21 years.

Domestic lawmakers have long been considering a proposal by the Council on Public Health and Demographic Issues (CEDAW) to completely ban flavored and menthol cigarettes, but there were no specific dates - this suggests that menthol lovers have at least 5 years.

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Statistics show that active smokers of menthol cigarettes significantly increase the risk of lung cancer, but tobacco companies are not ready to believe this data. However, they cannot deny that menthol cigarettes make a person much more dependent on smoking.

Scientific sources:

1. Mentholated Cigarette Smoking Inhibits Nicotine Metabolism, source
2. Are Menthol Cigarettes Riskier Than Non-Menthol ? source
3. Lung Cancer Mortality Risk for US Menthol Cigarette Smokers, source