It is no secret that tobacco companies aggressively market menthol-flavored tobacco products to African Americans, the LGBQT community, people with low incomes, and other groups.
This contributes to targeted groups being more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other populations, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], and Food and Drug Administration [FDA].
“This is a big public health problem,” said Dr. Li-Shiun Chen, a Washington University associate professor of psychiatry who has researched the impact of menthol cigarettes on minority communities.
“Adding menthol into cigarettes attracts people to smoking and makes it harder for them to stop. It also increases the addiction potential.”
The FDA has started its administrative process, which it hopes to complete in a year, to ban menthol from cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes [vaping] are becoming favored by teen smokers – especially Black teens.
“Banning menthol in cigarettes, the last available flavor, and all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these daily products,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock announced in a release.
“Together, these actions represent powerful science-based approaches that will have extraordinary public health impact. We believe these actions will launch us on a trajectory toward ending tobacco-related disease and deaths in the U.S.”
According to the FDA, the move could save the lives of 92,000 to 238,000 African Americans.
Chen said research confirms that Black Americans smoke less cigarettes than other ethnic groups yet have a higher incidence rate of contracting cancer.
“Menthol plays an important role in that. There is deeper inhalation, and addiction factors because of the menthol flavor,” she said.
African American men have the highest rates of lung cancer in America, according to the CDC.
Menthol flavoring in cigarettes has been banned in seven of 10 Canadian provinces since 2015-17. A governmental study between 2016-18 concluded that “the menthol ban was significantly associated with higher rates of quit attempts and quit success among menthol smokers, compared with non-menthol smokers, and may have helped to prevent relapse among menthol smokers who had quit smoking before the ban.”
“The [tobacco industry] supports the argument that ‘if you take it away, it might get worse.’ [The study] addresses that concern. [A menthol ban] will help most people,” Chen said.
According to a 2018 National Institute of Health study, 85% of Black smokers preferred menthol cigarettes.
An FDA survey conducted between 2013 and 2015 showed that among Black adults who smoke, 93% used menthol cigarettes when they first tried smoking. Among White adults who smoke, 44% used menthol cigarettes when they first tried smoking.
The FDA has estimated that between 1980 and 2018, 1.5 million African Americans began smoking menthol cigarettes and 157,000 African Americans died prematurely because of menthol cigarettes.
Ironically, the FDA had banned flavored cigarettes from being manufactured or sold in 2009. Menthol escaped the ban, which was approved by Congress, because some members of the Congressional Black Caucus did not support the menthol ban.
Former Congressman William Lacy Clay supported the ban.
Rep. Donald McEachin and some other Black Caucus members warn, “there could be unintended consequences” for not supporting the menthol ban. This would include police using the ban to arrest and/or harass Black people.
“It will disproportionately impact African Americans and lower-income communities while tobacco products commonly used by predominantly white or more affluent populations go unchecked,” McEachin said in a statement.
Virginia ranks fourth in tobacco production in the U.S., according to a 2020 U.S. Drug Administration report.
The Biden administration has countered that argument by explaining the ban would go after manufacturers and people who sell, not individuals who smoke menthol cigarettes.
Keith Wailoo, author of Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette, told National Public Radio those that were hesitant to ban menthol feared losing campaign contributions and other support from tobacco companies and retailers.
The national NAACP supports the FDA menthol ban, saying that the tobacco industry’s aggressive targeting of the Black community continues.
Derrick Johnson, NAACP president called the ban a “win for justice.”
“These products have killed our children, our parents, our brothers, sisters, and livelihoods. After fighting against deadly menthol products for decades, today is a victory for Black America,” said in a statement.
“This pattern continues today with expanded marketing strategies like supporting and providing scholarship funding for events, supporting various Black leaders with financial support, discounting menthol products in Black neighborhoods, and abundant advertising in stores frequented by Black communities,” the NAACP said in a statement.
The organization said that it received tobacco industry financial support until 2002.
