If you think the company might actually have wanted people to use nonsmoking sections, their sincerity was undermined by documents detailing campaigns such as sponsorship of Kent Pop Music Chart to circumvent market restrictions designed to recruit New Generation smokers. In seminars for Chinese reporters in remote cities, the company, as one document put it, sought to present the message that tobacco smoke is just one of the sources of air polution [sic] and a very insignificant one compared with other pollutants. When the study was published, British American Tobacco officials denied they had tried to weaken Chinese laws or slow the response to health threats
The WHO report also warns of the pressures faced by those who legislate against the interests of these lobbying groups, which often uses the threat of litigation or actual litigation against anti-tobacco measures, even if these are within the framework of the World Health Organization
In Canada, several provinces implemented their own menthol bans before a national menthol ban was enacted in 2017
And if youre generally concerned about lung exposure, CBD tinctures, gummies, or capsules are effective alternatives that bypass inhalation entirely
Most minority smokers use menthols, and most youth who start smoking try menthols first
