The Food and Drug Administration announced late last month that it wants to ban menthol cigarettes, which are the overwhelming preference of African American smokers. But if a smoking prohibition is good for Black people, who comprise only about 1 in 7 U.S. cigarette smokers, why isn’t it good for whites and other Americans as well?
A smarter policy would be to phase in an FDA ban on all products that burn tobacco and aggressively urge adult smokers who can’t quit to transition to alternative devices that deliver nicotine in a far less dangerous way.
Smoking causes 480,000 preventable deaths annually in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that “16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.”
Menthol cigarettes are harder to quit
According to the latest CDC data, Black Americans actually smoke less than whites, but nearly 85% of Black smokers use Newport or other cigarettes with menthol. That flavor makes it easier to start smoking and harder to quit, an FDA-convened panel of experts found. In 2011, the panel recommended that “removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.”
James K. Glassman – USA Today – 2021-05-13.
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