New findings in JAMA demonstrated the effectiveness of a menthol cigarette ban in Canada.
According to the study, Canada’s ban on menthol cigarettes resulted in a plunge in its sales, as well as a decrease in cigarette sales as a whole by nearly 5 percent.
The ban was put into full swing in May 2015, in which a federal ban sufficed just two years later, in 2017.
The study looked at cigarette sales in Canada between 2010 and 2018 derived from data reported by manufacturers.
“Menthol cigarette sales increased gradually in all 10 Canadian provinces from 2013 until the menthol cigarette ban was implemented,” the co-authors wrote in their findings.
“After the bans, sales of menthol cigarettes decreased to 0 in all provinces, and the overall percentage change in cigarette sales for the same month in the previous year was 4.6%.”
“This economic evaluation found that the bans restricting the sale of menthol cigarettes in Canadian provinces were associated with significant reductions in menthol cigarette sales and total cigarette sales,” the authors determined.
