SHARE Outside a 7-Eleven in downtown Washington, DC, a middle-aged man sits on the edge of a flower bed, a menthol cigarette loosely dangling from his right hand. “I’ve been smoking since my early teens, probably 12 or 13,” said Tracey, who gave only his first name. Tracey, like the vast majority of black smokers in the US, prefers menthol cigarettes. But under new rules proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), menthol sales could be banned in the US Tracey said any such ban would have little effect on him and he would just switch to a different type of cigarette, but tobacco industry watchers say the proposed rules could affect