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The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it would seek to ban menthol cigarettes nationwide, thus placing the tobacco industry in a place all too familiar: having to defend mint-smoked cigarettes. , popular among young smokers and African Americans.
Menthol-flavored cigarettes account for almost one-third of the approximately 250 billion cigarettes sold each year in the United States. For a long time, the industry has been promoting it to blacks and minority neighborhoods. More than a dozen municipalities have bans on menthol, but cigarette manufacturers have so far avoided federal restrictions.
As part of a broad-based crackdown to limit the use of youth-flavored tobacco products, the FDA announced that it was working on a rule banning cigarettes and flavored cigars in Canada. menthol. It may take a year or more before the rule is finalized and another year for it to be applicable to the market. The agency also imposed restrictions on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes within 90 days and said it would soon ask the tobacco companies to remove certain flavored cigars from the market. He is working on a separate rule to completely ban flavored cigars.
Any proposal to ban menthol cigarettes "will be subject to judicial review," said a spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc., citing the possibility of a legal battle. Reynolds makes the first brand of Newport menthol. "We believe that the evidence shows that menthol does not encourage people to smoke, does not make smoking more difficult to quit and does not increase health risks compared to menthol-free cigarettes." ", did he declare.
British American Tobacco
The PLC is the most involved. It spent about $ 50 billion three years ago to take full control of Reynolds American. In 2016, that accounted for about half of the $ 12.5 billion in Reynolds' business revenue.
Altria Group
Inc.
sells Marlboros flavored with menthol and
Imperial brands
PLC sells the Kool and Salem brands, but these companies are not as dependent on menthol for their overall sales. Altria and Imperial declined to comment prior to the FDA announcement.
An FDA committee report says removing menthol cigarettes from the market would be good for public health. Cigarettes have been sold to African Americans for years. (Originally published on January 4, 2011)
Menthol, a naturally occurring compound found in mint plants, has been added to cigarettes since the 1920s. It provides a feeling of freshness in the mouth and throat, similar to that of a drop of menthol cough. Health officials said this effect mitigated throat irritation caused by cigarette smoke, making menthol more attractive to young people.
The FDA concluded in 2013 that menthol is more difficult to stop and is likely to pose a greater health risk than regular cigarettes. But it was only last year that the FDA announced that it was actively considering banning menthol and other flavored tobacco products.
"Why only menthol?" Said Jeff Washington, a 52-year-old New Yorker who started smoking in Newports when he entered the military in 1983. If menthols were banned, he said, "I would start smoking Marlboros."
Recourse to the courts is a tactic that has already worked for the tobacco industry. In 2011, several companies managed to prevent the FDA from making mandatory the introduction of large warning labels on cigarette packages, claiming that it was a violation of their first amendment rights. Such warnings are in place in many countries.
Reynolds spent $ 11.7 million fighting the ban on menthol adopted last year in San Francisco and confirmed in June by an electoral measure. He also funded leaders of the black community who spoke out against municipal bans on menthol, including Reverend Al Sharpton, who said they would create an illicit market for racial profiling by Black police. .
Over the decades, minorities have been attracted to menthol brands such as Newport, Kool and Salem, while tobacco companies have advertised in magazines and billboards depicting carefree black smokers. The companies also encouraged the widespread belief that menthol was soothing and had a medicinal effect.
Advertisements for 1970s cigarettes, such as Newport's, often targeted African Americans who spoke of the "cool" flavor of menthol.
Photo:
Advertising Archive / Everett Collection
In the United States, 81% of black smokers and 46% of Hispanic smokers used menthol in 2017, compared to 29% of white smokers, according to an analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use. and health done by the Wall Street Journal. According to the data, approximately 45% of 12- to 17-year-olds who smoke report smoking menthol. For black teenagers, this figure is 52%.
"Menthol serves to mask some of the unattractive features of smoking that might otherwise discourage a child from smoking," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement, adding that menthol products "exacerbate troubling inequities. related to race and socio-economic status ".
In March, the FDA asked the public to comment on the role of menthol and other flavorings in tobacco products for a potential ban. The British American, Altria and other tobacco companies have exposed their positions in submissions to the agency.
The FDA's findings on menthol in 2013 "have suffered from fundamental scientific deficiencies," Altria said in its July submission, adding that a ban on menthol would likely create a substantial illicit market.
"A ban on menthol cigarettes would give the police another way to negatively interact in black communities," wrote Reverend Sharpton in an editorial that he co-wrote in May 2017. "A ban, a ban or a restriction of menthol cigarettes would have punitive consequences. . "
Reverend Sharpton did not respond to a request for comment.
The NAACP and the National Urban League this week announced their support for a federal ban on menthol. The FDA's plan "has long been waiting to protect the health of African Americans and reduce the negative impact of menthol smoking and smoking on health in America," Marjorie Innocent, director, said Wednesday. the main health programs of the NAACP.
In the 1990s, the tobacco industry opposed federal regulation, but in 2000, Philip Morris Cos, now known as Altria, spoke in favor of federal oversight. He participated in the legislative negotiations, passed in 2009, giving the FDA regulatory control over tobacco products. The law prohibited the flavors of sweets, fruits and spices in cigarettes because of their potential for attraction to children, but left unresolved the issue of menthol.
The 2009 law provided that the agency could only prohibit menthol if it could demonstrate that such a prohibition was a net benefit to public health, taking into account potential unforeseen consequences such as illicit market. Since then, the agency has been trying to overcome this obstacle.
"Why only choose one type of cigarette?" Said Rasheem Chisholm, 46, of Brooklyn, who has been trying to break his Newport habit for 20 years. "It's not good, it's all about banning everything.
Write to Jennifer Maloney at [email protected] and Tom McGinty at [email protected]
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