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From the smoke-filled scenes in classics like Casablanca and Scarface to the contemporary rise of vaping, combustible tobacco products have maintained a large cultural presence through the years. As e-cigarette usage continues to grow, especially among previous smokers, regulating tobacco products is more important than ever.
“The purpose of the center that I lead is to develop the science to help the FDA with their regulation of tobacco products in such a way that they can protect public health,” said Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and co-principal investigator of The Yale Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science.
Part of Krishnan-Sarin’s research includes assessing the sex differences in e-cigarette usage. Historically, women have had a harder time quitting smoking than men, without a clear reason why. Interestingly, menthol is a common ingredient in tobacco products and is often marketed to women as a milder alternative to traditional cigarettes.
In 2019, Krishnan-Sarin and co-author Danielle Davis, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, launched an experiment to investigate the differential impact of flavor on male and female smokers’ experiences with e-cigarette devices. After puffing an e-cigarette flavored with various additives, including menthol, participants were asked to describe their sensory experience and assess the appeal and reward. “Women, when ranking the appeal of the e-cigarette, rated menthol higher than other flavors, which were the tobacco and sweet flavors, while the men didn’t really show a difference in appeal,” Davis said.
The researchers’ findings suggest that cooling flavors like menthol in e-cigarettes may be more attractive to female smokers than other flavors. In the future, it will be crucial to explore whether the menthol preference extends to younger females who have not yet used tobacco products. These findings might help make e-cigarettes more accessible to those who want to use them as a tool to quit smoking while reducing appeal for potential new users.