Ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars could save hundreds of thousands of lives, experts say
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce a proposed rule this week to ban menthol from cigarettes, as well as to ban flavored cigars. It’s a step that public health officials say is essential to protect public health.
“I’m really excited about the possibility. At our foundation, we’ve cared about issues of smoking and preventable deaths for so long,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who now serves as the president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a public health advocacy organization.
“To see an issue that disproportionately affects African American smokers, disproportionately affects women, LGBT people who smoke, lower-income individuals. To say that these lives count just as much as any other life and preventable death, gives me real, real hope.”
Menthol is an equity issue that the FDA has been considering for more than a decade.
About 18.6 million people smoke menthols in the US. That’s about 36% of all smokers, according to the FDA, and a disproportionate number are people of color.
About 30% of White smokers choose menthols, but they are by far the cigarette of choice for nearly 85% of smokers who are Black. About 40% of women smoke menthols, compared with 31% of men, according to the FDA, adaeventsnews gathered.
LGBTQ people are also significantly more likely to smoke menthols. A 2013 study that looked at data from the CDC’s 2009-10 National Adult Tobacco survey found that 36% of LGBTQ smokers chose menthols, compared with 29.3% of straight smokers.
More than half of kids who smoke use menthol cigarettes, according to the CDC. A survey of adults who smoke found that the majority started with menthols. Other studies said kids who smoked menthol cigarettes were more likely to become regular smokers than occasional smokers.
Smoking rates in the US reached an all-time low in 2018, according to the CDC, but smoking is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death, disease and disability in the country. In general, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the US, including more than 41,000 deaths from secondhand smoke.
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Cutting out menthol in cigarettes and cigars could have a significant effect on the number of smokers, the FDA said. By one estimate, it could even prevent 650,000 premature deaths over the next 40 years.
Another study projects that an elimination of menthol as a cigarette flavor would lead 923,000 people to quit smoking, including 230,000 African Americans, in the first year and a half.
The long road to banning menthol
Menthol is the last special flavor allowed in cigarettes in the US.
It’s a chemical compound found naturally in peppermint that can also be made in a lab. This minty flavor creates a cooling sensation on the throat and softens the harshness of the tobacco taste. It’s a quality that, studies show, makes smoking more addictive and more palatable to children and new smokers.
“Like a menthol cough drop does when you have a sore throat, it soothes,” said Erika Sward, assistant VP of national advocacy for the American Lung Association.
In part to keep kids from smoking, Congress banned flavored cigarettes with its 2009 Tobacco Control Act, with the exception of menthol. The same act gave the FDA the authority to regulate the tobacco industry to protect public health.
