FDA menthol cigarette ban proposal overview:
- Who: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent a proposed ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for review.
- Why: The FDA argues banning menthol-flavored cigarettes would significantly reduce tobacco-related diseases and deaths, including among African Americans and other minorities.
- Where: A ban on menthol cigarettes would be nationwide.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent a proposed rule banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
The FDA first announced the proposal last year as a way to prevent youth from being initiated into purchasing the tobacco products and to “significantly reduce” tobacco-related disease and death.
The agency has also said it believes that tobacco flavors like menthol disproportionately impact minorities — and has pledged to do away with them — with the rules stop at the OMB the last in the regulatory process before the agency issues its final reviews, reports Law360.
“Finalizing these two product standards remains a top priority for the FDA,” said Brian King, the director of the FDA’s tobacco center, in a statement, as reported by CNN.
FDA estimates menthol cigarette ban would prevent 324,000 to 654,000 smoking-related deaths in next 40 years
The FDA estimates that banning the sale of menthol cigarettes would reduce smoking by 15% in the 40 years and prevent 324,000 to 654,000 smoking attributable deaths overall during the same time period.
The avoidable smoking-related deaths include 92,000 to 238,000 African Americans, according to the agency, which said the rate of menthol cigarette smokers is particularly high among youth, young adults, and African American and other racial and ethnic minority groups.
“The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, in a statement made last year.
While Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, the law did not include menthol in a list of banned tobacco flavors, with lawmakers instructing the FDA at that time to research menthol, reports Law360.
A class action lawsuit was filed against Walgreens last year over claims the company fails to warn its customers that menthol cigarettes it sells pose added health risks than the traditional non-menthol cigarettes it sells.
Do you believe the FDA should ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars? Let us know in the comments!
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47 thoughts onFDA sends proposed menthol cigarette ban to White House for review
They should ban all cigarettes but they won’t they will lose money smoked kools for over 20yrs quit 15 yrs ago the government says they care but they do not as I said money lost for them
Man, this post brought out all the smokers. Nobody putting “add me” to this one. What happened?
The Federal government should get out of our personal lives, full stop! This “ban” on menthol is no more likely to stop smokers from adding menthol flavoring to their regular tobacco than banning “flavors” is to stop kids from vaping. Meanwhile, states are legalizing marijuana which is far more dangerous than tobacco! Everybody will pick their poison…
Hi, I am not a minority nor am I an African American, I am a Female Caucasian who has been smoking Menthol cigarettes for over 35 years. I started smoking when I was 12 years old and was smoking non-menthol way back then. I caught a very bad cold that eventually ended up turning into pneumonia and that’s when I started smoking Menthol. Only because I couldn’t “taste” or “feel ” the non-menthol flavor when I was smoking. So, I turned to Menthol cigarettes for the flavor and feel and off and on throughout my life I tried to go back to non-menthol but I have always went back to my “normal” cigarettes.
Banning Menthol and “flavored” cigarettes and cigars will not stop children or teens from stopping smoking….children and teens are going to try or going to “rebel” rules, laws, regulations, and authority in any way they can find! Just remember YOUR childhood and teenage years! Some will stick with it and some will not. Just like some children and teens choose to smoke and some do not. Some of these children and teens push their boundaries and have to learn the hard way! Not all of these children and teens continue to smoke just as not all of the “African Americans smoke Menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars. When the Government is pointing out that one section of Americans are harming themselves they, which ever Faction of the Government, are the ones whom are being Biased and or Racist…THIS IS MY OPINION…..because I am not and African American nor a child, and I do smoke Menthol cigarettes BUT I was left out of all these Medical Studies AND I am going to be “punished” because of all of these studies, and I will be denied the same Menthol cigarettes/flavored cigars as the rest of ALL Americans (no matter what Race they are).
No . FDA should stick to stopping the food that’s made that’s killing all types of ppl that are full of poisons chemicals giving us cancer and other health problems. Oh that’s right. Their not doing there job there either. Need to focus on education. Cause the more you hold back from using the more we tend to fight for what we what to do . Because this is the land of the free. What we should be banning . Is FDA their not doing their job in keeping us safe from other forms of dangerous things that are killing us.
This is the most idiotic proposal next to Bidens agenda. Leave us alone and worry about more important matters! Tired of my freedoms being threatened by government!
Ban the FDA get useless governments out of our lives.
How do you propose prescription medication is regulated then? Cancer medication, antibiotics, etc. Literally every drug that’s on the market and most of the food we eat has to be approved as safe by the FDA. They’re not a useless government agency. I guess you want to buy food that you don’t know what it has in it or how long it’s been sitting around. All that stuff is regulated by the FDA. That’s just a ridiculous statement.
Banning menthol cigs will not solve the smoking issue. When I began smoking in high school it was plain cigarettes. I went to menthol because my step children would steal my smokes. When going to menthol no more begging or stealing off cigs.
Banning menthol flavored tobacco products won’t solve whatever issues the FDA has with them. I’ve been a smoker for most of my life and I along with a vast majority of other smokers did not start with smoking menthol flavored cigarettes. Both menthol and non menthol flavored cigarettes are addictive. It’s also not a very positive outcome if only 15% of the smokers will quit in a 40 year period. 40 years is a long time and to only say an estimated 15% is to say the least, quite discomforting. Especially with all the effort the FDA seems to put into their fight for this ban. Tobacco product usage is legal and has been for many, many decades now so why not just leave things alone and allow people to exercise their right to choose whether or not to smoke, and if they want to smoke menthol or non menthol products? This is after all the United States of America, the “Land of the Free”. Furthermore, if the FDA is so focused on stopping the youngsters from smoking, then putting further restrictions isn’t the answer. The answer starts at home. Why should legal aged grown adults who prefer menthol cigarettes be punished because the youngsters aren’t getting the health education and/or proper supervision that they should be. Plus, the more the
Plus, the more people are told that they can’t do something the more likely they’ll do it anyway. Just like the use of street drugs. Make menthol products illegal and people will still find a way to get them. Maybe the government should be more concerned about cracking down on all illegal substances being sold to our children which causes a far more of addictions that menthol tobacco products.
No. Banning menthol will cause people nationwide, to go through serious withdrawals. Tobacco is 10 times more addictive than Crack cocaine. Can you imagine attitudes, personality disorders etc. And, people will smoke more regular brand cigarettes to try and fulfill a nicotine feeling, they will never reach.
All cigarettes non menthol or menthol kills people everyday. So really There is no sense to ban only menthol cigarettes when Regular cigarettes can cause the same thing 🤔
I think it’s reducolis this ban there other things he needs to be foucus on let people have there jouise what they smoke