Menthol's soothing effects may lead to addiction and illness in young smokers
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 05:00
in Health & Medicine
(Medical Xpress) -- A research team from Yale and the University of Connecticut has found that the cooling effect of menthol may actually cause people to smoke more and become addicted to cigarettes because it reduces the protective respiratory response to irritants in cigarette smoke. The biggest danger, they argue, is to young smokers, because they disproportionately prefer menthol cigarettes and are therefore likely to become addicted more quickly. The study appears online in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).