The Food and Drug Administration has proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes in response to mounting pressure from civil rights groups on federal regulators to crack down on the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing to black communities.
“Banning menthol, the last allowable flavor, in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products,” said acting FDA head Janet Woodcock on Thursday.
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Roughly 40% of all smokers choose menthol over nonflavored cigarettes.
But black smokers make up 85% of all menthol tobacco users, a fact that civil rights groups such as the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and the NAACP say is evidence of “predatory” marketing tactics by the tobacco industry to hook more smokers.
“For far too long, certain populations, including African Americans, have been targeted and disproportionately impacted by tobacco use,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These flavor standards would reduce cigarette and cigar initiation and use, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity by addressing a significant and disparate source of harm.”
The FDA faced an April 29 court-mandated deadline to respond to a 2013 citizen petition to ban menthol cigarettes initiated by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. Anti-smoking advocates have applauded the Biden administration’s move to take menthol cigarettes off the market after efforts to ban them under the previous administration failed.
“It would be so refreshing if [the FDA] did the right things to protect public health without being petitioned and sued by ordinary people,” said Ruth Malone, a tobacco industry researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.
The policy change will not take effect immediately. In fact, the FDA rule-making process could take years before a ban on menthol cigarettes is finalized. The proposal will also face challenges from the tobacco industry, whose lobbyists launched a crusade against the Trump administration’s efforts to regulate nicotine content in cigarettes and flavors in vaping devices.
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Former head of the FDA Scott Gottlieb set in motion a series of proposed regulations on the tobacco industry during his tenure in the Trump administration, including an all-out ban on pod-based electronic cigarettes, such as Juul devices. Gottlieb also introduced caps on nicotine levels in tobacco products, a proposal that was shelved when he left his position in 2019.
