FDA Promises Not To Target Black Cigarette Smokers In Menthol Ban
On Thursday (April 28), the Food and Drug Administration decided to move forward with a ban on menthol as a major ingredient in cigarettes and on all characterizing flavors in cigars.
But because 85 percent of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, academic and civil rights leaders warned that such a ban could empower local law enforcement to target African Americans. So understandably, concerns have sprung up about police aggressively targeting Black neighborhoods or the possession of illegal cigarettes.
Those concerns, however, have reportedly been addressed by the FDA via a news release.
“If implemented, the FDA’s enforcement of any ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars will only address manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers and retailers,” FDA officials wrote Thursday in the release, according to NBC News. “The FDA will work to make sure that any unlawful tobacco products do not make their way onto the market.”
Additionally, the FDA was ordered by a court to respond to a 2013 citizen petition urging the agency to implement the ban. Black health experts have spent over a decade pushing menthol to be included in a list of banned cigarette flavors while pointing to the disparities experienced by Black Americans.
“We’re being liberated from the harm of mentholated tobacco products. This is the beginning of that,” said Delmonte Jefferson, executive director of the Center for Black Health & Equity, according to NBC News. “The Food and Drug Administration has stood up for the health of Black people. It should have been done over a decade ago. But this says, ‘We’re starting to take our foot off of the necks of Black people.’”
Menthol is a popular cigarette ingredient that offsets the harsh taste of cigarettes and nicotine irrigation by creating a cooling sensation in the throat. It also makes it both easier to start smoking and more difficult to quit.
