A ban on menthol cigarettes will save lives, experts say. It’s not that simple.
The Biden administration is under pressure to ban menthol cigarettes, and for good reason: A menthol ban will probably save hundreds of thousands of lives, many of them Black lives.
A ban would be the biggest change to tobacco regulation in years. Menthol cigarettes account for more than a third of all cigarette sales in the US, according to the CDC. Of African Americans who smoke, about three in four choose menthol.
In a 2020 editorial in the journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research, scholars Cristine Delnevo, Ollie Ganz and Renee Goodwin describe a menthol ban as “a social justice issue” that “could have monumental implications for both the short- and long-term physical and mental health of communities of color.”
It’s true that the tobacco industry has targeted Black communities with marketing for menthol cigarettes. But Black smokers might well object to the claim that selectively banning the cigarettes they like advances social justice.
The FDA has been told by a federal judge to respond by April 29 to a citizen petition seeking a menthol cigarette ban that was filed back in 2013. If the agency recommends a ban, the decision would move to the White House.
