Cigarettes with menthol capsules prohibited

Ban menthol aroma capsules in fresh breath cigarettes

27.09.2012

The Administrative Court of Braunschweig has confirmed the ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes in Germany. The complaint of a tobacco manufacturer against the ban was rejected. The aroma capsules are prohibited because, according to the legislature, they increase the attractiveness of smoking. The capsule cigarettes violate, inter alia, the "World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control", the court ruled. (Az 5 A 206/11)

With the ban on flavor capsules, the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety has implemented the requirements of the agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO), according to which cigarettes and other tobacco products must not be increased by innovations in their attractiveness. As the menthol in the aroma capsules reduces the bad breath after smoking, the cigarettes would be made more attractive by these and thus the danger of dependency, argued the judges of the Administrative Court of Brunswick. The cigarettes with menthol flavor capsules are therefore rightly forbidden and may not be sold in Germany in the future, so the current court decision.

Menthol flavor capsules increase the attractiveness of cigarettes?
Since bad breath is perceived by many smokers as an unpleasant side effect of tobacco use, tobacco manufacturers have a keen interest in improving their products in this regard. In fact, this might benefit tobacco use. However, it is doubtful whether the cigarettes with menthol flavor capsules would have met with the smokers at all to a corresponding resonance. Even conventional menthol cigarettes enjoyed no particularly high popularity. However, one attraction advantage of the flavor capsule technique might be that the capsule is broken only at the completion of cigarette smoking and does not previously release menthol flavor. Nevertheless, the increase in attractiveness alleged by the court would probably only have affected a minority of smokers. Nevertheless, the consistent attitude of the legislator towards new potentially more attractive tobacco products is to be welcomed. Here no precedents should be created, which would later justify a permission of other products. (Fp)

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