State legislation is now targeting tobacco
DENVER — The nicotine landscape in Colorado is likely to change in the near future, but how much depends on what lawmakers do in the final days of this year’s legislative session.
Late last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed banning menthol in cigarettes and all non-tobacco flavors in cigars. A bill in the Colorado legislature would go further, prohibiting retailers from selling any tobacco product that’s flavored, and outlawing products made with lab-created nicotine.
That wider definition would include e-cigarette liquid and most products, other than “premium cigars” and hookah tobacco.
Both proposed bans would apply to manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Possession and use of flavored tobacco products wouldn’t be a crime.
There’s widespread agreement in the public health community that banning flavors from cigarettes and cigars would save lives, but applying the same rules to e-cigarettes is more controversial.
Ted Wagner, director of the Center for Tobacco Research at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, said a ban on flavors in cigarettes and cigars is a clear public health win, but when it comes to e-cigarettes, the benefits of reducing kids’ exposure to nicotine has to be balanced against the risk the vapers will turn to combustible cigarettes.
“It’s a little more complicated,” he said.
In 2009, the FDA banned almost all flavors from cigarettes. It allowed menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to stay on the market, though. Both menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars are disproportionately used by young people and African-americans.
One study estimated that removing menthol from cigarettes and cigars could prevent up to 650,000 tobacco-related deaths by 2060, because fewer people would start smoking and some menthol smokers would quit.
The problem isn’t that menthol is more dangerous, but that the cooling effect makes cigarette smoke less harsh, so young users are more likely to keep lighting up, said Dr. Rachel Villanueva, president of the National Medical Association, a group representing Black physicians.
Some research suggests menthol also influences the way the body processes nicotine, making cigarettes more addictive.
“It’s easier to smoke… but just as risky,” she said.
About 85% of Black smokers use menthol products, compared to about 30% of white smokers, and tobacco companies disproportionately advertised menthol cigarettes in locations and publications popular with Black people. Some people have argued that banning those cigarettes would be discriminatory and encourage police to harass users.
Excessive policing is a concern, Villanueva said, but so is the increased risk of cancer and hear t disease in smokers, as well as asthma in kids exposed to secondhand smoke. Black smokers are more likely to report they want to quit than white smokers, but have lower odds of success, and the tendency to use menthol cigarettes may be a factor, she said.
Sondra Young, president of the NAACP Denver, said at a rally Wednesday that stopping the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars is a top priority for the organization.
“There is no greater risk to the health and well-being of thousands than the health impacts caused by these deadly products,” she said.