The tobacco industry has strategically and aggressively targeted the community with menthol cigarettes for decades, including placing more advertising in predominantly black neighborhoods and in publications that are popular with black audiences, as well as appropriating culture in marketing, including sponsoring events such as jazz and hip-hop festivals.
Smoking can cause cancer, strokes and heart attacks and is blamed for 480,000 deaths each year in the U.S. About 14 percent of Americans smoke cigarettes, with rates roughly even between White and Black populations
UNDER guidance from the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving to ban menthol-flavored cigarettes and cigars, tobacco products that long been marketed to Black communities in the United States of America.
The FDA has attempted several times to get rid of menthol but faced pushback from Big Tobacco, members of Congress and competing political interests in both the Obama and Trump administrations.
Smoking can cause cancer, strokes and heart attacks and is blamed for 480,000 deaths each year in the U.S. About 14 percent of Americans smoke cigarettes, with rates roughly even between White and Black populations.
Any menthol ban will take years to implement and will likely face legal challenges from tobacco companies.
The mint-flavored cigarettes are overwhelmingly used by young people and minorities, particularly Black smokers, 85 percent of whom smoke menthols. That compares to about a third of white smokers.
It’s no accident that nearly 9 in 10 Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, which are easier to smoke and harder to quit.
The tobacco industry has strategically and aggressively targeted the community with menthol cigarettes for decades, including placing more advertising in predominantly black neighborhoods and in publications that are popular with black audiences, as well as appropriating culture in marketing, including sponsoring events such as jazz and hip-hop festivals.
“Today, tobacco-related diseases are still the number one cause of death in the African-American community, and that’s not a coincidence,” said former Truth Initiative Youth Activism Fellow Lincoln Mondy in his documentary “Black Lives / Black Lungs,” which explores the strategic infiltration of menthol tobacco products into the Black community.
“For decades, tobacco companies have used predatory practices aimed to push their deadly product on the Black community,” Mondy added.
Public health experts say the prohibition is a significant opportunity to improve the life of Black Americans.
The majority of Black Americans who smoke use menthol cigarettes and a majority who started smoking began using menthol cigarettes.
The product is more addictive than cigarettes without menthol, studies show, and has a cooling effect in the body.
The FDA stressed that its ban would only apply to manufacturers, distributors and retailers, not individuals.
But Black smokers are less likely to successfully quit, a trend that the U.S. Surgeon General and others have attributed to menthol cigarettes. (NP)
Tags: #tobacco, #mentholcigarettes, #BlackAmericans, #lungcancer