Report finds menthol abuse

Tobacco firms said to manipulate levels to attract young smokers

Behind the moves, the researchers assert, was an effort to woo new smokers. Their report notes, among others, a 1987 R.J. Reynolds document that suggests that menthol can make it easier to get started. "First-time smoker reaction is generally negative," it says in part. "Initial negatives can be alleviated with a low level of menthol."

The "rapid introduction" of new milder menthol brands in the past decade violates a provision in the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 between tobacco companies and state governments that prohibits them from directly or indirectly targeting youths, says the Harvard researchers' report.

"What we are seeing is pretty disturbing," Connolly said. "They are going after the most vulnerable."

Michael Robinson, a spokesman for Lorillard Tobacco Co. in Greensboro, N.C., called the report's findings that menthol was manipulated to target young smokers "categorically false."

"Lorillard does not control levels of menthol to promote smoking among adolescents and young adults," he said in a statement. "Furthermore, Lorillard does not engineer any of its cigarettes to promote smoking initiation or nicotine addiction. Importantly, the target menthol specifications for Newport have not changed at all since 2000."

He said the report was "a politically motivated lobbying tool."