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Menthol vs nonmenthol cigarettes: effects on smoking behavior
W J McCarthy1, N H Caskey, M E Jarvik
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) 90024-1563.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to examine intraindividual differences in smoking behavior between smoking regular and mentholated cigarettes.
Methods:
Healthy male smokers (n = 29) smoked either a regular or a mentholated cigarette in two separate sessions 1 week apart. Commercial brands with comparable tar, nicotine, and CO content were used. Smoking behavior was constrained by fixed 15-second interpuff intervals, but puff volume and number of puffs were unconstrained.
Results:
When smoking the non-mentholated brand of cigarettes, participants smoked 22% more puffs and had 13% higher mean volumes per puff than they did when smoking the mentholated brand of cigarettes. The aggregate 39% excess exposure to cigarette smoke in the regular-cigarette condition was not accompanied by commensurate excesses in expired carbon monoxide or in physiological measures normally correlated with nicotine exposure.
Conclusions:
These findings parallel differences in physiological correlates of exposure to nicotine found in cross-sectional comparisons of African-American and White smokers and are consistent with the results of emerging laboratory investigations.