FDA to Ban Menthol Cigarettes?

Pick your poison.  Needing a pack of Newport (#1 in the U.S.), Salem, Kools, Dorals or any other menthol flavored cigarette?  If you or someone you know is an African American who happens to be a tobacco smoker, there is a 70% chance that the cigarette they smoke is a menthol flavored cigarette.  Menthol flavored cigarettes make up more than a quarter of the U.S. market with black users at 70%, topping whites’ 33%.  In another way of looking at it, 4 out every 5 African American smokers puff menthol cigarettes.

Questions have always existed regarding the health of smokers.  And recent studies have pointed to the disparities in health among black and white smokers.  Why do disparities exist among ethnicities when it comes to cigarette smoking?  It is common knowledge that smoking causes cancer and other serious illness. But why does this vice hurt black more than whites?  Blacks smoke less then whites but are 30% more likely than whites to have lung cancer, heart disease and strokes.  Menthol may be the cause of the increased risk among African Americans.

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, “Removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.”  They stopped there.  No ban on menthol cigarettes just yet.

The committee’s recommendation is based on an FDA study which found that increased youth smoking was directly related to the increasing numbers of those who try menthol cigarettes and become regular smokers.

In the summary of the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee report, committee member Mark Clanton, Chief Medical Officer at the American Cancer Society said, “the availability of menthol cigarettes has an adverse impact on public health by increasing the number of smokers with resulting premature death and avoidable mortalities.”

The Smoking Prevention Act signed by President Obama in 2009 banned candy and fruit flavored cigarettes.  Word is that President Obama, who has been smoke-free for over a year now, said that flavored cigarettes were “most insidiously” key to baiting young smokers.

Britton Loftin is a Political Strategist and Director of a Legislative & Government Affairs firm.

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One Response to FDA to Ban Menthol Cigarettes?

1. lovemyaire8 says:

   3:11pm April 21, 2011 at 3:11 pm

   I love Menthol cigarettes. I had to quit smoking for major surgery and found menthol flavor AirE8 Electronic Cigarettes are soooo REALISTIC that I do not miss my tobacco ciggs at all.

   I need the flavor – the kick – and the hand to mouth action. I love my AirE8 and will never have to worry about tar other cigarette chemicals again. Go to the AirE8.com website for more info on the menthol cigarette ban.

   Reply