“The Food and Drug Administration should go ahead and ban menthol cigarettes” :The Houston Chronicle
Over time, they have become a strong niche product in the massive American market, accounting for 25 percent of cigarette sales. Brands such as Kool and Newport are the perennial best sellers.
Overwhelmingly, menthol cigarettes are the delivery system of choice for nicotine-addicted African-Americans. More than 80 percent of menthols are purchased by this demographic group.
In late March, an outside advisory panel of the federal Food and Drug Administration identified increased public health risks associated with menthol cigarettes and signaled that these risks would be lessened by banning them. The non-binding report is required under a 2009 federal law that prohibits cigarette makers from adding flavors to their products.
The advisory report fell just short of an out-and-out recommendation to ban menthol cigarettes.
We’ll add a vigorous nudge: We strongly encourage the FDA to ban menthol cigarettes.
Our position is built on a simple, straightforward premise: We oppose any method or flavoring that in any way disguises the fact that cigarettes are a deadly and uniquely effective delivery system for a highly addictive drug, nicotine.
Cigarettes kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, and we would like to see that death march slowed. Banning menthol cigarettes would greatly assist in the effort
