Targeted sales of menthol cigarettes summit topic
Organizer: 700,000 lives could be saved over 4 decades.
Cigarette companies have targeted Black communities and youth with menthol cigarettes, researchers say, and explaining how this has been done will be the focus of the Regional Menthol Prevention Summit.
The summit is scheduled for Thursday, May 16, at Sinclair Conference Center.
“It’s time for our community to use its voice to end the targeted sale of menthol nicotine products to not only African-Americans but also to our youth,” said Bruce Barcelo, organizer of the Regional Menthol Prevention Summit. “When we see the end of selling menthol products, we will save nearly 700,000 lives within 40 years. How can we not act?”
Menthol makes smoking less harsh while also making it more difficult to quit, according to Barcelo, who is also the director of education and prevention for Soter Technologies, which sells products for vape detection and anti-bullying.
“It helps the poison go down easier,” he said. “It also then cools it so then you get a cooling sensation.”
In the late 1950s, he said, about 50% of Americans were smoking, but Black people were not smoking nearly at the rate that the white population was smoking.
Big tobacco companies then targeted advertising toward Black people, Barcelo said.
“They decided a menthol cigarette may be more attractive,” Barcelo said.
Cigarette companies targeted menthol ads to the Black community by featuring Black people in advertising, as well as sponsored cultural events.
Approximately 40% of excess deaths due to menthol cigarette smoking in the U.S. between 1980 and 2018 were those of Black people, despite the community making up only about 12% of the U.S. population, according to the CDC.
Approximately 1.5 million Black people began smoking menthol cigarettes during that same time period, the CDC says.
Youth and young adults are more likely to try smoking with a menthol cigarette versus a non-menthol cigarette, the CDC says. About 40.4% of middle school and high school students who were smoking in 2023 reported using menthol cigarettes, additional research shows. Nearly nine in 10 children and teens in grades 6 through 12 who reported using tobacco products used flavored varieties.
Thursday’s summit will feature experts on health care, education, prevention and policy sectors.
Experts in tobacco prevention will share the latest research and enforcement of legislation, including Carol McGruder, co-founder of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, Dr. Rob Crane, founder and president of the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, and Dr. Micah Burman, professor at the Ohio State University College of Law.