The FDA Is Moving Forward with a Menthol Cigarette Ban. Here ’s What the Science Says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with plans to ban menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars—policies that agency officials say could help prevent some of the roughly 500,000 U.S. deaths linked to tobacco each year. “The actions we are proposing can help significantly reduce youth initiation and increase the chances that current smokers quit,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement. “It is clear that these efforts will help save lives.” But whether the proposed menthol ban will work as intended is a matter of active debate. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Many influential public-health groups support the policy. Menthol adds a minty flavor and cooling feeling to cigarettes, masking their harshness. As a result, menthol cigarettes are thought to be both more appealing to new smokers and harder for current smokers to quit, which justifies their prohibition, according to many public health experts. (A new study, however, calls into question whether menthols are actually harder to quit than regular cigarettes.) Black Americans are disproportionately likely to smoke menthols, in large part due to decades of targeted marketing from tobacco companies. Supporters of a menthol ban, including the NAACP, argue that the move would improve the health of Black Americans, while critics argue it is a racial justice issue and could result in discriminatory policing by criminalizing a product disproportion...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Addiction healthscienceclimate Source Type: news