“We will save save hundreds of thousands of lives and prevent future generations from becoming addicted smokers,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA s acting commissioner.
She cited research estimates that banning menthol would prevent 630,000 tobacco-related deaths over 40 years, more than a third of them among African Americans.
Menthol is the only cigarette flavor that was not banned under the 2009 law that gave the FDA authority over tobacco products, an exemption negotiated by industry lobbyists. The act did, though, instruct the agency to continue to weigh banning menthol.
The flavor’s persistence has infuriated anti-smoking advocates, who point to research that menthol’s numbing effect masks the harshness of smoking, likely making it easier to start and harder to quit.
The Food and Drug Administration has attempted several times to get rid of menthol but faced pushback from Big Tobacco, members of Congress and competing political interests.
Feds revive effort to ban menthol cigarettes in the US Share Updated: 9:00 AM PDT Apr 29, 2021 By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer
Feds revive effort to ban menthol cigarettes in the US Share Updated: 9:00 AM PDT Apr 29, 2021
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TRACKING THE COVID-19 VACCINE Share Updated: 9:00 AM PDT Apr 29, 2021 By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer U.S. health regulators pledged again Thursday to try to ban menthol cigarettes, this time under pressure from African American groups to remove the mint flavor popular among Black smokers.The Food and Drug Administration has attempted several times to get rid of menthol but faced pushback from Big Tobacco, members of Congress and competing political interests in both the Obama and Trump administrations. Any menthol ban will take years to implement and will