• Wall Street Journal, Friday, July 16, 2010 11 AM

The cigarette industry disputed critics who say that menthol flavoring increases the risks of cigarette smoking in testimony before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel yesterday. The panel is considering limiting or banning flavoring on the grounds that it makes cigarettes more addictive and harder to quit, Shayndi Rice reports.

"Our analysis of the published scientific literature and internal studies concludes that menthol added to cigarettes does not increase the inherent health risks of smoking," according to Jane Y. Lewis, svp for Altria Group. But Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says menthol cigarettes leads to more children trying cigarettes and increases the speed with which people become addicted. "Something that impacts the number of people who start, impacts the number of people who die," he claims.

Leonard H. Jones, director of marketing and marketing research for Lorillard, says that the company only advertises in magazines with less than 15% youth readership. Although it places ads in both general market and African-American magazines, Jones says that the smoker's ethnicity plays no role in the company's direct marketing strategy.

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