Menthol cigarettes have been pushed on Black communities in the United States more than other groups,according toThe New York Times. Black smokers choose menthol cigarettes like those from Newport and Kool 85% of the time, three times more than white smokers, according to the FDA. The cigarettes are more addictive and harder to quit,researchers have found, likely because the menthol has a cooling effect that makes it easier to inhale more nicotine.
The proposed ban would likely include flavored cigars and cigarillos,but not e-cigarettes.
PEOPLE has contacted the FDA for comment.
A group of ten civil rights and Black health groups recently sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging the Biden administration to start the process of banning menthol cigarettes.
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They emphasized that the tobacco industry has pushed menthol cigarettes on Black communities for years, handing out free samples in neighborhoods and sponsoring events. The tobacco industry has denied doing so, and Kaelan Hollon, a spokesperson for Reynolds American, which makes Newport cigarettes, told thePostthat they market the product “to reach a wide and diverse audience of adult smokers, regardless of their ethnicity or gender, with the intention of persuading smokers to choose one of our brands rather than a brand of one of our competitors.” She also said that menthol cigarettes should not be regulated differently than other cigarettes.
Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told thePostthat “a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars would do more toreduce youth tobacco useand health disparities than any other single action the federal government has ever undertaken.”
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who worked under the Trump administration, had previously said he would propose a ban on menthol products, but did not before leaving. The House of Representatives has also voted for a bill that would ban all flavored tobacco products, but it did not come to the floor in the Senate.
source: people.com
