US FDA Proposes Ban on Menthol Cigarettes
Pheng C. US FDA Proposes Ban on Menthol Cigarettes. Medpage Today. April 28, 2022. “The actions against menthol in conventional cigarettes are based on data showing that it not only makes starting smoking easier and more appealing to youth but that it also makes withdrawal harder by interacting with nicotine in the brain to enhance nicotine’s addictive effects…. https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/smoking/98451
Eliminating menthol cigarettes alone has been projected to lead to a 15% reduction in smoking and would save 324,000 to 654,000 people, especially among US minorities, from smoking-attributable deaths over the course of 40 years.”
Comment: Youth and minorities suffer disproportionately from the use of menthol cigarettes. The benefits of a ban are clear, but the tobacco industry and its allies have opposed this ban. See the FDA Menthol Timeline from 2009-2022 to understand the long road to this proposed ban: https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/resources/fda-menthol-timeline
Stephen Hamann
