Menthol cigarettes are as harmful to your health as conventional cigarettes - and even harder to give up, according to a study published yesterday.

Research carried out in the US has found that menthol and non-menthol cigarettes appear to be equally harmful to the arteries and to lung function. But smokers of mint-flavoured tobacco appear to find it even more addictive. Those who quit are almost twice as likely to relapse as smokers of non-mentholated tobacco, and they are far less likely to stop for a sustained period and less likely to try to give up in the first place.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, looked at the effects of menthol smoking over 15 years on 1,534 young people in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study.

The researchers found menthol cigarette smokers were more likely to be younger, female and unemployed, and to have a higher body mass index and a lower level of education. In Britain, 6.3% of people who smoke opt for menthol cigarettes but their appeal is not restricted to any particular group, according to the cigarette manufacturer Gallagher.