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FDA Bans Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars
The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it will start banning menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars. This is a decision many anti-smoking advocates hoped for a long time.
RELATED: California Bans Smoking For Your Own Good
Menthol Cigarettes Ban
Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock issued a statement regarding the ban. “With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products,” she said.
Anti-smoking groups and health advocates who wanted a menthol ban lauded the decision. “It's been a long road, but we're here now,” said Delmonte Jefferson, executive director of the Center for Black Health & Equity. “This is victory,” he added.
Black Smokers Prefer Menthol Cigarettes
The FDA ban can help Black smokers in particular, as they prefer menthol cigarettes. 85% of Blacks prefer menthol cigarettes, compared to just 30% for white smokers.
According to Mitch Zeller, FDA Center for Tobacco Products director, Blacks are more prone to suffer from tobacco-related ailments. “Black smokers are more likely to die of tobacco-related disease than white smokers. And while we've seen declines in menthol cigarette use among non-Hispanic, white youth, we have not seen the same decline in use from communities of color,” she added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also praised the ban. “The FDA has taken a historic, life-saving step. Banning menthol cigarettes will most assuredly save lives, eliminate great suffering, and reduce health care costs,” he said in a statement.
Valerie Yerger, a founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, also liked the move. She recognized the 47,000 Black Americans who died of smoking-related diseases annually since 2010.
“That's more than 47,000 who are not here with us to enjoy this morning,” Yerger said during a briefing. Yerger’s group, along with the Action on Smoking and Health organization, sued the FDA previously. They did so when the agency didn’t respond to a 2013 citizen petition calling to ban menthol cigarettes.
Menthol Addition
Menthol is used in tobacco products to create a cooling sensation in the throat. This makes it easier to inhale the smoke and nicotine.
Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association, said this is a game-changer. “For generations, the tobacco industry has intentionally targeted Black and other communities with marketing of menthol cigarettes,” he said. This led to tobacco-related death and disease as well as health disparities,” he stated.
Also, Wimmer noted that close to half of all kids started smoking via menthol cigarettes. Experts hope when with the absence of menthol cigarettes, young people can avoid falling into the habit.
The CDC said that menthol leads young people to start experimenting with tobacco products,” said. . Teenagers often then turn to cigars in “flavors like banana smash, cherry dynamite, and chocolate,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.
Pushback From Some Groups
Not everybody was happy about the ban, The National Newspaper Publishers Association is an organization that represents “more than 200 African-American owned community newspapers” in the US is one of those.
A recipient of Big Tobacco funding, the NNPA said that such a ban can further inflame tensions between the Black communities and police. “Daily interactions between police and people of color demonstrate that a menthol ban would give police pretext to approach a smoker to find out where cigarettes were purchased in order to get to the seller of the counterfeit tobacco,” the group wrote online.
However, the FDA allayed the NNPA’s fears. “This is a critical, and understandably sensitive issue, as our society confronts matters related to systemic racism and social justice,” Zeller said. He clarified that the FDA rule covers manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers, and retailers” and not individuals.
As such, “the FDA cannot and will not enforce against individual consumer possession or use of menthol cigarettes or any tobacco,” Zeller emphasized.
Two Years For Menthol To Disappear From The Market
The FDA announcement represents the first step in a very long regulatory process. Given the process, menthol cigarettes will likely stay available for two years more. Advocates say that's not such a bad thing. Two years is enough time for organizations to hold more smoking cessation programs.
Do you smoke cigarettes? Is smoking still a cultural thing in your area nowadays? Why do you think people enjoy smoking? Share with us your opinions on menthol cigarettes and smoking in general. Drop your comments below. For Americans who want to quit smoking, there's hope.
Watch the CNBC TV video reporting that the FDA moves forward with a plan to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars:
Loading ...Do you smoke cigarettes? Is smoking still a cultural thing in your area nowadays? Why do you think people enjoy smoking?
Share with us your opinions on menthol cigarettes and smoking in general. Drop your comments below.
For Americans who want to quit smoking, there's hope. Visit the National Cancer Institute's website, smokefree.gov. Or, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW, which connects callers to state-specific helplines.
53 Comments
So very stupid.
Who the hell to they think they are I don’t see how they can BAN Anything it want stop there what ever happened to my body my choice it shouldn’t be anyone’s business if I wanna smoke ten packs a day
I AGREE WITH YOU EVA, I DON’T SMOKE BUT WHY DO THIS. IF PEOPLE WANT TO SMOKE LET THEM SMOKE ANY CIGARETT THEY LIKE. WE NEED TO PUT THE BAND BACK ON SMOKING POT/WEED. OH AND BY THE WAY BAN ILLEGAL ALIENS CROSSING OUR BORDERS IF THEY WANT TO BAN SOMETHING!
Feeling less like America everyday. Welcome to The United States Of China
I’ve been wondering why the flags have been at “half-mast” for months. Now I know…it signifies the “the death of America”.
This People Control thing is getting damn Stupid!!! Worry about all the immigrants breaking. Into our country!! Or how to get Biden/Harris impeached !!!
Yep, if they want to ban something, I can think of lots of things more appropriate, for instance as stated above illegal aliens for one, I love everyone, and there is a legal way to come here, and all are welcome, but not this insanity. I worry more about gun rights being removed than anything, If Biden thinks he can change the constitution with a signature, I hope people rise up and let him know, NO HE CANNOT. Sorry for my rant, just my opinion of course.
I have no comments
With everything going on in the world today THIS is what they are focusing on??? I do not smoke, nor have I ever but those who do choose to smoke it is their business. Every morning I wake up to more and more ridiculous news, this world is becoming the biggest joke (all in 4 months)!
Just who do they think they are. This is the U.S.A. They don’t have the right to ban anything as long as we have a constitution. From guns to cigarettes and everything in between. This is the basic premise of this country. It’s called freedom. Let them ban cigarettes, then what’s next? It’s a slippery slope.
Completely stupid idea. What’s next?? Controlling how much air we breath?
Another way the government and most likely democrats are controlling the narrative for black people. Doing it for their safety, while taking away their freedom to chose for themselves. Democrats are always doing things for the good of the black community, at what point will they acknowledge the black community as individuals who are free to make decisions of personal choice. We ban these cigarettes but legalize marijuana, do we have statistics on what race smoke more marijuana ? The Democrats/ government is ass backwards with their policies.
This is against our rights. Sure non smokers are happy. But honestly it is our own business. FDA has no right taking away our right to smoke. If they really want to do something help our vets. That are given the chose to smoke pot or give up there pain medication. Which makes no sense to me. Most vets didn’t smoke til they joined the service. But yet states allow ppl to go in these shops and buy pot but they arent given drug tests to make sure they arent doing heroin or cocaine. They just sell it to them.I think the state and federal are screwing with we the ppl.
I have smoked for 52 years and you are not taking the only injoyment I have lleft in life besides my fur babies, worry about the illegal aliens coming in and giving them our stimulus check, bull crap
Yes we should do this. Thousands of white people die from smoking and that doesn’t matter. We should band this if it saves the black man. This isn’t racial at all. It’s pure bull shit and that’s the fools who are running things. It’s not my place to tell anyone not to do that. We all make choices and live with them everyday. Is the black man to stupid to make a choice for themself.
Smoking is my choice and none of FDA’s business. Communism at work already. Who are these advocates anyway? Another minority with another change they want piled on top of the ones they have already asked for and the government is cow towing to. Since when does minorities have more power over the majority? What a bunch of corrupt weakling agency’s in this country. What about alcohol, liquor. Kills more people than cigarettes. Can’t drink and drive, could kill someone and it is doing it. Yet cigarettes are taxed not liquor. Want to control cigarettes, not alcohol. Liquor better for your health. Hell no. It can kill your liver and pancreas. FDA concerned about that, NO. Liquor can cause disjunction to the brain, causing erratic driving of a car, staggering around, falling down, a alcoholic husband or father abusing his wife or children. Do cigarettes cause any of these things? NO! This whole thing is shear stupidity. But that’s going on all around us lately. Dumb a…BS.Want more tax money, hit upon liquor, menthol? It hasn’t hurt anyone. It’s even in mouth wash. Throat losengers, cough drops to mention a few. Our freedoms are being taken away people.
, cough drops to name a few.
So marijuana is fine but flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes get banned? This, like most thing the dumbocrats do, spits in the face of freedom. This is nothing but government control of something they have no right to be in control of.
The FDA appears to be racist. Where’s the Woke crowd on this? Blacks prefer menthol cigarettes? If so they’re deliberately targeting the people of color for banning their favorite cigarette
Another statistic. More alcohol is consumed than cigarettes smoked. Millions who have never touched a cigarette drink alcohol. Beer, not hard liquor, is consumed like water. Yet too much can make you drunk and should not operate a vehicle. Smoke too many cigarettes before driving, no effect what so ever. So what is the most danger between the too habits. Liquor. So why the big hub bub with cigarettes? Sheer stupidity. Makes no sense. Each day something pops up taking away another freedom, a right, trying to change an amendment. None of which are necessarily good for the country or it’s people. Why are they picking on cigarettes and not liquor? Too much if either is not good for you but cigarettes have already been hit on by taxing them, But not liquor. Now menthol, also pertains to cigerettes. Menthol is in a lot of other things, they going to remove them too or is this going to be one sided against tobacco again?
My life my choice. These people need to focus on the real problem. Who are they to pick and choose what kind of cigarettes are made it’s just one more way to control us. Keep to yourselves and leave us alone. I get one enjoyment in life and they want to take that away. I choose to smoke that’s my right and my right to smoke menthol what do they plan on accomplishing with doing this. The are complete idiots.
So, it’s okay for the black community to kill babies through abortion but ban their menthol cigarettes?
I am totally fed up with the agencies deciding what people can and cannot do. We are supposed to be a constitutional republic, with freedom to do what we want as long as it doesn’t harm someone else.
People have been smoking tobacco since before America was colonized, and menthol flavored cigarettes have been on the market for 50 years or more. American tobacco companies not only make cigarettes for the domestic market, but for international sales as well. Another move by the left to kill farming and production jobs, putting more Americans on the dole at the mercy of the government. Although not a smoker, I hope there will be an industry, as well as a consumer, and even international push back on this!!! Remember folks, like the covid BS….it’s ALL about CONTROL….
They banned commercial ads (billboards as well as TV) for tobacco products. They said then it was for public health. I thought then that they should ban ads for alcoholic beverages. Alcohol has and will kill more people and break up more families than tobacco. If they want to help the American people (white as well as people of color) then finish that wall and put more ground security at the Mexican border. It is a shame that our government has put up fences and walls to protect themselves at home and in Washington (Nancy Pelosi is the biggest hippocrate of them all she doesn’t want to protect our border and is all for illegal immigrants invading our country but, she has a wall to protect herself and her family from them) but has no problem with what is happening down south. In a speech just a few days ago our dear dementia induced president Biden said “we the people ” is the government “say what” yes he did say that. So I guess that “we the _______#@$*= have no say, and we are no longer a resident of a democracy but, of a dictatorship. WELCOME HOME!!!!
Outrageous!!! This is about CONTROLING people taking away FREEDOM. There are LEGAL DRUGS that kill, Liquor kills, Vaccines that Kill, with tons of adverse effects and damaging or Children. They allow altering our food making it poisonous to make us sick. I could go on and on. This S##it has to stop. Why don’t they spend their time and our money looking into all the DEATHS AND ADVERSE EFFECTS of this EXPERIMENTAL so called Vaccine they are pushing down on us right now. That in animal studies killed them all. Why????? When there are very effective cures even Fausi { the new Dr. Death} knows it, see the paper he wrote in 2012 stating the cure. Stop this madness worldwide.
I quit for 10 yrs and started back, I quit again for 1 yrs and started back.I enjoy smoking and dont want to quit..Its one of my lifes pleasures ( one of few )
Thanks
Wouldn’t this be called racial injustice? They are doing this to target a specific race. Regardless of their reasoning, it’s still taking away their right to choose.
This is just another tactic to start controlling what we as Americans used to call freedom of choice..
I’m sure they want to put a racil spin on this also..
Leave us the HELL ALONE..
We can make our own choices and sure as hell don’t need a privilege rich person to tell us what to do.
As a former smoker of menthol cigarettes (Newport), I can attest to it’s addictive properties and the ease with which people can get started smoking cigarettes and of course the health challenges that it causes. But I also do not agree with the banning of these items as it is placing a restriction on people and what they want to do with their bodies is truly up to them. While I would LOVE every American to make and follow healthy choices, we do live in a free (for now) country and people have freedoms to make the choices they want. There are many more critical things that the Feds could be doing to curtail things such as closing our borders back up and regulating immigration and the war on terrorism. Just my .02¢
Whaat you can kill a baby inthe womb because it is your body,but you can’t smoke menthol or flavored cigars! I am a former smoker and it doesn’t affect my life if someone smokes.Why do people smoke because they enjoy smoking..Where does banning things that aren’t good for you stop? Bacon,milk,candy,eggs.This is the land of the free or is that changing! Ver r ur papers.People know speeding in your car can be hazardous to your health but they still do it ,Americans like freedom
Why doesn’t the FDA (FEDERAL DEMOCRAP ADMINISTRATION) ban beer, wine, liquor and all other forms of alcohol. Alcohol kills more people than cigarettes do. This country, American is going to hell in a hand basket. I have never said this before , but America is really F*$ked Up.
Just more governmental control- yawn… Lots of hot air, little substance, more feel good, do nothing bullshit. So, this is ‘breaking news! BORING. Breaking news would be biden dropping dead from a heart attack taking polosi and his veep with him – now THAT would be newsworthy. This crap? Feel like priorities since demoncrat take over live in the Enquirer – toilet-worthy bullshit.
Your government knows what’s best for you, and you’d better conform because reeducation camps await!
We the PEOPLE now is the time.
Very racist!!!
I* noticed a comment above that mentioned “My body, my choice”; does that only apply if you are murdering babies?
If the Trump administration had done this, the New York Times would have it as a front page, top fold headline, as would every media source in the nation as racist , and the Democrat would have sued to stop the ban.
Started with drinking age we now have double alcoholic’s then seatbelts good for kids I should have choice now cigarettes I enjoy smoking my mental an am so called white if anyone is I don’t get the racism there should not be any we all came over from a boat (ancestors
Why the BAN, there was a statement (85% of BLKS chose Menthol and only 30% WHITE)
So now it would be ILLEGAL, now how many Arrests would there be or Killings.
I feel at this point, how many cans of worms would open.
Ill clarify first,Im white,almost 82. I started smoking at 16,camels,no filters. Couple years later,I switched to menthol,
Menthol is very addictive for women especially. Smoking relaxes me,if you have lots of stress, (mainly caused by our Govt. now days),you reach for a smoke.I dont know what Ill do if I cant get menthol cigs. Everyone says just quit,not
easy,its a addiction like drugs,b esides 6 people in my family quit,and died 1-15 yrs later,FROM LUNG CANCER. Im not quiting after 65 years,The commies will try,Ill smoke grass from my yard,and wont have to worry about mowing.
Too much control, enough is enough! I quit 22 yrs ago, my choice, if you want to smoke then god damn it you should! Tired of people knowing whatsbest for me. Cant go anywhere without smelling pot! What the fuck!
First off, this is America and this is not OK! I’m white and I smoke non-menthol, but there is absolutely no way this is ok. It’s basically prohibition for menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. The government is going to lose the tax money (a lot of it) and pay more taxes process and JAIL people for a menthol cigarette or even better a flavored cigar with LEGAL WEED in it. HILARIOUSLY MORONIC and UNENFORCEABLE. You going to taste my cigar Mr. Officer? I would put money on that COPS won’t even attempt to enforce this law.
So, Let’s just say you ban them. People will still get them and buy/sell/smoke them. You going to start putting people in Jail for a menthol pack of smokes? Absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
I own a business and make good money, but I promise you if this happens i am going to buy cartons upon cartons of menthol smokes and flavored cigars (like dutches). I’m going to sell the hell out of them for outrageous prices. And I’m sure there are plenty others out there who will do the same. What happens if i own the smokes PRE-BAN bitch.
Lastly, and probably most importantly, this is another way to harm the black community, by promoting this type of action (i’m sure by ethnicities who want to make a buck). Further causing a diminishing wealth in colored communities. Bottom line, regulation cost a lot of money to smokers and non-smokers. Anyone realize that WE ARE ALL PAYING FOR THIS! How about the you focus on the economy, businesses, joblessness, or infrastructure instead.
Sorry, Correction to the last paragraph above. (I’m sure ALL* Ethnicities who want to make a buck)
I thought about quitting until I read about the French doctors who started wearing nicotine patches when they noticed that middle aged smokers were not dying of the Wuhan flu at the expected statistical rate. Maybe when the scamdemic is over, I’ll think about quitting. Will I have to get some grow lights and grow my own tobacco? I can do that.
Susan says—- I don’t smoke and never have but I think the government is overstepping it’s bounds> They have no business in deciding what we put in our bodies. I agree with the guy who says we’re heading in all the wrong directions!!!!
Given the statistics of WHO smokes the most “menthol” …. this sounds VERY RACIST!!! Not surprised, considering Biden (and Clinton) once called black Americans “Super Predators.” (Fact check that.)
Sounds good to me. Look how the Eighteenth Amendment worked out when they prohibited alcoholic beverages.
Omg! What will be next? The govt. will be telling us we can’t wear shoes on our feet. This is communism. Our govt. has no right to tell us what we can and cannot put in our own bodies. Who do they think they are. I smoke menthol for more than 45 years and I happen to enjoy it. I have smoked non-menthol also and it’s the same. Cigarettes are cigarettes no matter what. The govt. needs to worry about more important things like immigration, homelessness, joblessness, etc. than what kind of cigarettes people are smoking. We should all get together and fight this. It’s just not right esp. not for the U.S. it’s getting out of control. If they do this ask yourself what will be next. Ridiculous. Black, white, yellow, brown, it doesn’t matter, again they are taking away another one of our freedoms and we can’t keep letting them get away with it.
I’m still fuming over them making my cigarettes fire safe I’ve burnt more things with these cigarettes slicing off the ends just because I wasn’t smoking it fast enough to stay lite ,and there’s no way that I’ll ever believe that these cigarettes have saved lives by not starting fires they just wanted to ruin the taste to hopefully force people to quit well that didn’t happen either so can I have my original non fire safe cigarettes back now!!
Socialism, communess, What country is this? I was born in America, One Nation under God. The Right to live, Freedom. We the people are No more. “One Nation Under Corporate”. Communess, One Nation under insanity.
Agreed with every comment 100%. You know what this going to cause. What happened with toilet paper, disinfectant products, etc, etc when the warnings came out about Covid virus. A run on menthol cigarettes, hoarding, low stocks of them, hard to find. Just lit myself one, who knows if I can get anymore. This could be my last pack. I have smoked since high school. Now 81. Last chest x-ray, lungs clear. Just like any other disease, some people susceptible some not. Immune systems different in people. The virus, for instance. We have taken precautions. But a neighnpbor visited us one day to help with something, his son walked our dog. Next day his son called and said they were on their way to doctors office. His dad showed positive for the virus and wound up in the hospital just the day after he was in our house, we wear no masks in the house, just the two of us. He wore no mask. What were the odds we may have gotten it? We didn’t. So this ban on cigarettes is a bunch of BS. They blame all lung cancers in cigarettes. Our other neighbor died of lung cancer. Worked as an auto mechanic breathing in carbon monoxide every day. That was what killed him. These are just excuses for the government taking control of our lives and FDA is cow towing to the government. They are even instructing us on how and what to speak. We are not to say illegal aliens. Well, sorry, that’s what they are, and I am going to keep calling them that. Watch out folks, communism is creeping in on us. Keep strong America and keep fighting back. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
Thank God i was able to quit smoking menthol cigs 35 years ago. A nasty, addictive drug and stopping was the hardest thing i ever did. So many folks are prematurely lying in their graves because of that crap.
Yes – Let’s ban cigarettes and legalize marijuana. I’m not even a smoker but even I can see how stupid this is!! Who the heck does Biden think he is. I’m so incredibly sick of all the stupidity and BS crap
Rob Mullins, what makes you an expert about menthol. You were addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes, not menthol. It is not a nasty addictive drug. If so, next time you have a cold, don’t touch a cough drop, cough medicine, nose drops and don’t use toothpaste or mouthwash when brushing your teeth. And a vaporizer to help you breath, forget it. Are they going to ban all these too? If not, banning it in cigarettes is a bunch of BS. And what you are naming it is completely false. Nicotine is the drug. This is just another control of us by the government to add to their long lists of stupidity. What about the pesticide in Round Up, instant oatmeal, baby food, made by Monsanto, banned in the rest of the world but not in the USA. Lawsuits galore against this company, but government does nothing. Farmers are using it on their crops and we are eating it. The hardest thing you had to endure was the withdrawal symptoms from the nicotine not in your system anymore and it was craving it. What do you think the patch contains? Nicotine. But in smaller amounts to help with withdrawal. And people in their early graves because of menthol, that’s a bunch of crap, BS. Any death certificates say menthol was the cause of that persons death. Come on, get real.
What gives them right to tell me what I can or can’t do with my life, I am 58 yes old an if I want to smoke my menthol cigarettes I will, they don’t pay of them but they tax the hell out of them ,So I am against the ban totally
What in the freaking HELL??? Why menthols cause based on the BS I just read…this is gonna cause a different kinda war! Or hell maybe that’s what they want…us killing each other off.!! Would be cheaper than starving!!
And the crap about this race smoking more than that one. Menthols are a choice not a damn religion. And the prices are the same, lame ass excuse!! Lastly whoever decided this needs to tied to a pole and beat down.