Needed action on menthol cigarette ban
Three generations of LaTrisha Vetaw’s family have smoked menthol cigarettes. It might even be four, since Vetaw knows that her great-grandfather smoked but isn’t sure what brand he lit up.
It is a family tradition that Vetaw has long lamented. Before her 2021 election to the Minneapolis City Council, she worked as the director of health policy and advocacy for NorthPoint Health and Wellness, a medical center in the city’s North Side neighborhoods. There, she was an outspoken advocate against tobacco use, particularly menthol cigarettes.
Thanks to advocates like Vetaw, a few states and a growing number of communities in Minnesota and elsewhere have taken steps to ban menthol cigarette sales, with objections including the minty flavor’s appeal to new users and its enhancement of nicotine’s addictive powers. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is poised to build on that work by taking a strong and necessary step:
Prohibiting menthol flavor in cigarettes nationally.
A stunningly large part of the total market may go up in a puff of smoke if the regulatory agency follows through. Menthol-flavored products totaled 37% of all U.S. cigarette sales in 2019 and 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In addition to banning menthol-flavored cigarettes, the FDA has announced a move to prohibit flavored cigars, which could reduce their appeal to new or young smokers.
The focus on a menthol ban’s impact on the Black community is important. Close to 85% of Black smokers use menthol products vs. 30% of white smokers. In addition, Black Americans are “more likely to die from smoking-related diseases than Whites,” according to the CDC.
Those statistics mirror what Vetaw saw growing up. Ads for menthol cigarettes abounded at the stores her family shopped in and in the magazines in their home.
“We were just bombarded with it,” Vetaw said.
Banning menthol cigarettes isn’t just a public health advancement. It’s also would take an important step toward addressing stubborn health care disparities affecting minority communities.
Said Vetaw: “We need this.”