FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Could it help smokers quit?
Federal health officials announced Thursday they are committing to advancing standards that will ban menthol-flavored cigarettes and all flavored cigars within the next year — products that are used by nearly 18.6 million Americans.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its move to pursue the rule-making process stems from an effort to “significantly reduce disease and death” from tobacco products that make smoking easier to start and harder to quit, especially among young people of color and low-income populations. Such illnesses are the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
“Banning menthol — the last allowable flavor — in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products,” Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement. “Together, these actions represent powerful, science-based approaches that will have an extraordinary public health impact.”
But would such a ban actually help people quit smoking? Experts have reason to believe it could.
Menthol is highly desired for its soothing and cooling effects that mask airway pain and unpleasant flavors from cigarette smoke, allowing smokers to breathe more easily and feel enhanced effects from nicotine. It’s a chemical naturally found in mint plants, but it can also be made in a lab; it was first added to tobacco products in the 1920s.
In turn, menthol can hide early warning symptoms of smoking-related respiratory problems. Although advertised as a healthier alternative, menthol cigarettes are just as harmful as any other cigarette, which all contain at least some level of menthol.
For these reasons, menthol-flavored cigarettes are known to lead people — particularly kids, young adults and communities of color — to begin regular smoking and depend on nicotine.
Flavored cigars are also of concern, the FDA said. After a 2009 ban on flavored cigarettes other than menthol, use of flavored cigars skyrocketed. Nearly 74% of children between 12-17 years old who use cigars have said they smoke them just because they come in enjoyable flavors.
In 2019, Massachusetts became the first state to restrict the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. California joined a year later, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
“Pediatricians have long been sounding the alarm on how the tobacco industry has used flavors to hook children and teens to their dangerous, addictive products — menthol, with its cooling mint flavor, is no different,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement. “In fact, we call tobacco use a ‘pediatric disease’ because it almost always begins in adolescence.”
The group called the FDA’s decision to pursue a menthol and flavored cigar ban “a common-sense step forward.”
One study found that a ban on menthol cigarettes in the U.S. would help 923,000 people quit smoking in the first year the ban goes into effect. Another projected that about 633,000 lives could be saved with such a ban.
“A prohibition on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars would mark a historic turning point in the decades-long battle against tobacco use and the epidemic of tobacco-related disease,” the American Heart Association said in a statement. “The science is clear: Menthol cigarettes have an adverse impact on public health and have no public health benefits as compared to non-menthol cigarettes,” adding that they increase the number of premature deaths from tobacco use.
Although smoking rates in general have decreased over the last 55 years, “that progress hasn’t been experienced by everyone equally,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
From 2011 to 2018, declines in menthol cigarette use were seen among young white people, but not young Hispanic or Black people, the FDA said. And out of all Black smokers, nearly 85% smoke menthol cigarettes compared to 30% of white smokers.
The stark disparities can be attributed to marketing campaigns that have targeted Black people for decades, the American Lung Association says. That’s why more Black Americans die of tobacco-related death of any racial or ethnic group in the nation, with nearly 45,000 deaths each year.
Use of flavored cigars is also higher among Black people than white people. In 2020, Black high school students reported smoking cigars over the last 30 days two times as much as their white counterparts, according to the FDA.
Similar disparities are apparent among women, the LGBT community, people of lower income or education status, and adults with mental health conditions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
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