Behind push to ban menthol products
Groups worry change targets Black community
NEW YORK – On his Brooklyn stoop, Haiti native Marcel Bichotte of the bigband group Super Jazz des Jeunes, or Jazz of the Young, could hold notes on his saxophone for what felt like hours.
The long notes ended after her father became addicted to menthols, said his daughter, New York Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. He developed debilitating respiratory problems and died at age 73 from lung and throat cancer.
“This is what tobacco can do to you,” the assembly member told USA TODAY. “It can end your ability to breathe.”
Bichotte Hermelyn sees her father’s death as a targeted strike on a Black man in a community targeted for years by the makers of menthol cigarettes.
The Brooklyn lawmaker is backing a measure to ban the sale of menthols and other flavored tobacco products in her state as the Biden administration stalls on a separate plan to ban menthols nationwide.
Bichotte Hermelyn and others say a menthol ban would address a festering injustice, providing long overdue respite to Black smokers who were targeted for decades by companies selling menthol cigarettes. Menthols produce a minty, cooling sensation believed to make them more addictive than other tobacco products.
Studies show menthol use has disproportionately affected Black smokers, who are more likely than white smokers to choose them. Black people are also more likely than white people to die from lung cancer.
The counterargument to menthol bans also centers on upholding Black people’s rights. Organizations such as the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives say a ban would criminalize menthol smokers because it would unfairly police people who sell and use them.
The showdown between tobacco
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control groups who want to reduce smoking deaths and the tobacco industry seeking to protect its turf has reached the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget, stalling its effort in December to finalize a rule to ban menthol. That decision remains pending.
‘Not targeting the other neighborhoods’
Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes when police killed him, opposes menthol bans over concerns they’ll harm Black communities, where people prefer menthols. She believes curtailing tobacco use is a good thing but worries about unintended consequences.
“They are not targeting the other neighborhoods, they are targeting the Black neighborhoods,” Carr told USA TODAY. “If they were talking about banning all cigarettes, then we would have a different conversation.”
The tobacco industry lobbyists who formed alliances with civil rights groups have defeated proposed bans in various communities. Tobacco watchdog groups that cheered bans in California and Massachusetts on flavored tobacco, including menthol, worry their best shot at a national ban is slipping away because of these conflicts.
“Just how long are you going to wait to do something when you’ve had the evidence for a decade or more?” said Cheryl Sbarra, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. “It is very frustrating.”
New York City rejected a menthol ban in 2019. In 2022, lawmakers in suburban Westchester County, north of the Bronx, passed a menthol ban bill, which County Executive George Latimer vetoed.
Though he supported lowering tobacco use overall, Latimer, who is white, saw the question as both jurisdictional and cultural. The region borders New York City and abuts Connecticut and New Jersey, across the Hudson River, where menthol sales are allowed. A ban would therefore be hard to enforce, he said.
But Latimer also shared the concerns of Black residents who feared they’d be criminalized by a menthol ban.
Top menthol seller funds civil rights groups
Luis Pinto, vice president of communications for Reynolds American Inc., acknowledged the company has funded the National Action Network.
“Historically, we did fund them,” Pinto said. “We no longer fund them directly.”
The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives lists Reynolds and Altria among its corporate sponsors on its website. Reynolds still sponsors the group, Pinto said.
Pinto said Reynolds, which sells the top-selling menthol brand Newport, supports groups that are important to the company’s customers. The company does not make its financial contributions contingent upon organizations maintaining a position, Pinto said.
Reynolds has said banning menthol cigarettes is an ineffective way to help smokers quit smoking or transition to other products.
Tobacco watchdog: ‘Overpolicing ... an overreach’
Yolanda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, finds the tobacco industry’s approach to the debate especially pernicious. The tobacco companies have raised concerns in the Black community that a ban might prompt police to crack down on illicit cigarette sales, she said: “They’ve been able to craft an argument that they think resonates, particularly in the African American community,” Richardson said.
Richardson emphasized that the proposed federal rule doesn’t include targeting individual people. Instead, it would prohibit the tobacco industry and retailers from making, distributing or selling menthol cigarettes.
“The overpolicing argument is such an overreach as to almost be laughable,” Richardson said.
She added the policing argument ignores the reality many Black smokers face. The real risk, she said, is more Black smokers getting hooked or delaying quitting and more cases of lung cancer and exacerbated health inequities.
On Friday, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department issued a 28page report on smoking cessation that did not address the menthol and flavored cigar ban.