Menthol Things Considered
Claim: Kool menthol cigarettes are owned by the KKK. Or menthols
are part of an insidious plot to do away with African-Americans. Or
they contain fiberglass. Or they'll render a man's winky
inoperable.
Status: False.
Origins: It's true that all cigarettes are bad news. However, in
the realm of the rumor, menthols are especially excoriated, with a
number of unusual slanders attached particularly to them, extra to
the usual industry-wide KKK ownership rumors.
What is there about menthols that so attracts the gossipmongers?
Perhaps it's that we're unusually suspicious about products we know
to be additive-laden. The more nervous among us would therefore
focus on menthols because even the uninitiated can taste the mint
in them and have sufficient awareness to conclude that natural
tobacco doesn't pick up a flavor like that all on its own.
Something got put in there. And (at least in the realm of rumor)
whatever got put in there has to be pure evil.
The idea that menthols must be especially terrible for the smoker
because things are tossed into them that aren't added to regular
cigarettes is terribly naive. All cigarettes contain additives,
else they couldn't be smoked. In addition to menthol in mentholated
products, humectants (applied for the purpose of moisture
retention) and preservatives are necessary. American cigarettes in
particular are wildly additive-laden, with more than 600 chemicals
and flavorants used in them. (Canadian cigarettes, by contrast, are
almost entirely pure tobacco, except for what's required to help
them burn evenly.)
Rumors about menthol cigarettes tend to fall into two categories:
those having to do with specific brands, and those having to do
with the product in
general.
Dealing first with specific brands, a common rumor about Kool is
that it's owned by the KKK. Both Reynolds Tobacco (Camels) and
Philip Morris (Marlboro) have seen the same rumors applied to them.
None of these companies has ties to the KKK, but claims that they
do continue to fall on receptive ears. In Kool's case, that brand's
choice of initial letter has bolstered speculation about a possible
Ku Klux Klan tie in the same way the red chevrons on the Marlboro
pack have affected perception of ownership of that product.
Tobacco has always been linked to the oppression of
African-Americans. This association started with the importation of
slaves into the United States to serve in the tobacco fields. The
connection between tobacco and harm to the Black man may be old but
it still exerts power today. This theme constantly turns up in lore
about cigarettes, often expressed in the form of rumors about a
white supremacist group secretly controlling a lucrative cigarette
company and thus enriching itself by dealing in the traditional
bane of the African-American.
Getting away from brand-specific slanders and shifting to general
menthol rumors, among the black community it's widely believed
menthol cigarettes pose an especial threat to African-Americans.
According to baseless rumor, companies marketing menthol cigarettes
have been increasing the amount of menthol in the formula to
accelerate the formation of lung cancer in black smokers or to
cause smokers' lungs to bleed.
African-American smokers gravitate towards menthols that bit of
news consistently turns up through study after study. This fact
certainly lies at the heart of numerous rumors of harmful
substances being mixed into these products with a view towards
either killing off Black consumers (cancer, bleeding lungs) or
impeding the growth of the Black population (impotence, sterility).
What this form of rumor justification fails to take into account is
that while menthol smokers form the majority among African-American
smokers (75%), across the wider market of the U.S. as a whole,
blacks comprise the minority of menthol cigarette smokers (25%).
Significantly more non-blacks than blacks indulge in menthols, thus
any insidious plot to harm African-Americans through their minty
cigarettes is going to adversely effect a far greater number of
whites.
One of the "Blacks are being targeted" rumors gives voice to fears
that something heinous is added to menthol cigarettes to increase
the possibility of lung cancer. A so-far unsuccessful lawsuit
brought against the tobacco industry in 1999 suggested that menthol
compounds, when burned, create toxic substances that make such
cigarettes more dangerous than others. The plaintiffs have so far
failed to establish this point, although government studies concede
that the more soothing flavor of menthols might induce smokers to
inhale more deeply, thus leading to a higher cancer rate among
menthol smokers.
If baseless scares about menthol cigarettes stayed focused on KKK
ownership or specific danger to African Americans, they'd be
understandable. (Just about every cigarette is rumored to have KKK
ties, and the high proportion of African-American menthol smokers
would fuel the other.) But the menthol carousel doesn't stop
turning there other rumors are afoot which have nothing to do
with the KKK or an underhanded plot to cut a swathe through the
African-American community.
Menthols are rumored to contain fiberglass. According to this
canard, the evil cigarette companies secrete the substance in the
product in an effort to better transmit that menthol sensation and
nicotine kick by way of causing tiny cuts in the smoker's throat
and mouth. This same rumor also attaches to smokeless (chewing)
tobacco, especially to the Kodiak brand.
There's no fiberglass in cigarettes. Granted RJR did try using a
fiberglass shell on its flopped smokeless cigarettes in 1994, but
that part of the contraption wasn't ingested by the smoker; it was
more of a housing, if you will. Other than that, no
fiberglass.
The fiberglass rumor parallels similar falsities about Carmex lip
balm and tampons. But of course if consumers overuse lip balm, they
will come to rely on it and afterwards have to continue using the
product. That little detail of life isn't in dispute, but rather
than accept it, some Carmex users prefer to believe the evil
manufacturer secretes ground glass in the product to roughen users'
lips and thus enslave them to the little jars with the yellow lids.
Likewise, a cyber-rumor that swept the Internet in 1999 claimed
evil tampon manufacturers were putting asbestos in that product to
promote bleeding and thus ensure women went through more tampons
per period. The common sense realization that if the government had
deemed asbestos far too dangerous to have in the walls of homes, it
certainly wouldn't passively watch from the sidelines as consumers
stuck the same substance inside themselves failed to occur to as
many people as one would hope, and this rumor about asbestos flew
from one inbox to another.
We've saved the best for last on this list of menthol rumors. A
surprising number of young men cannot be persuaded by any means
short of a bikini-clad redhead to smoke a menthol. According to
what they've heard, menthol cigs will render them impotent. They
base that mistaken belief on another, that saltpeter is used in the
product to aid in keeping the cigs lit. (It isn't.) Similarly, in
the 1960s, Thailand experienced a run on a related rumor, that
smoking menthols would shrink a fella's winky. Sales of menthols
plummeted there in the wake of that whisper making the rounds. (90%
of smokers in Thailand are male, and it looked like they were
determined to keep it that way.)
There's no reason to fear coming down with a shriveled willy after
a wild night of mentholation. Like the rumor about Mountain Dew,
this one has nothing to it.
There is, however, a tenuous connection between male impotence and
smoking in general. For decades, doctors have believed smoking can
harm a man's sexual function because it constricts blood vessels,
compromising blood flow. Over the years, studies have strengthened
those beliefs, most recently in 1994, when a study published in the
American Journal of Epidemiology surveyed Vietnam veterans and
found that while 2.2% of nonsmokers suffered persistent impotence,
3.7% of current smokers did. Many researchers also believe smoking
may lower sperm count.
So what's the bottom line of all this? Menthol cigarettes are no
worse for your sperm than any other type. Mind you, that's not
exactly heartening news.
Barbara "smoke on the water(shed)" Mikkelson
http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/menthol.asp
