Associations call on the United Nations to look into the issue of menthol

April 27, 2021

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: April 27, 2021

Temps de lecture: 6 minutes

Nearly 100 organizations around the world are calling on the United Nations to address the harmful effects of menthol cigarettes on the health of African Americans as a human rights issue, a move that is intensifying pressure on the U.S. government to ban menthol-flavored tobacco products.

Several dozen public health associations have joined together to submit a report at CERD[1], an international human rights body composed of independent experts, responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) leads 97 organizations worldwide in this public health call to end racial discrimination.

These groups want the committee to ask the United States to ban menthol cigarettes nationwide. The report notes that the United States ratified the Convention in 1994 and has since submitted several periodic reports to the committee. However, the last report was in 2013 and the country was due to submit a new report in November 2017, but the federal government has not yet submitted its report.

A social context that could accelerate the ban on menthol

The delay in the U.S. government’s submission of the report is particularly troubling at a time when racial discrimination is in the news and continues to negatively impact communities of color. The health inequities faced by racial minorities have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the scourge of menthol cigarette use by African Americans. The pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement have put new pressure on Congress and the White House to address these racial health disparities.

It is essential that the U.S. government fulfill its human rights obligations and submit its report to CERD because menthol, particularly targeted advertising of menthol cigarettes, is an obstacle to the right to health of African Americans. According to Laurent Huber, Executive Director of ASH, “ By continuing to allow the sale of menthol cigarettes, the United States is failing to protect the health of African Americans. It is the government’s duty to protect the human rights of its citizens. The CERD Committee can and should implore the U.S. government to fulfill this obligation by ending the sale of menthol cigarettes. "By this Convention, the United States is legally bound to uphold human rights, namely that everyone, regardless of sex, color, origin, etc., has the right to public health.

The Health Burden of Menthol in African Americans

Tobacco use disproportionately affects many marginalized populations—including people in low-income communities, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT people, and people with mental illness—who have a long and documented history of being aggressively targeted by the tobacco industry. Tobacco use therefore directly affects the right of these groups to enjoy the highest level of health equally and equitably.

Smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, and more than 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking. About 16,000 African Americans die from lung cancer each year, and smoking-related deaths are about 18% higher among African Americans than among whites. According to the report, nearly 9 in 10 African Americans (88.5%) ages 12 and older who smoke use menthol cigarettes, and 67% of the overall health disparities in mortality among African American men are related to their high prevalence of smoking. Research shows that if menthol cigarettes were banned nationwide, 44.5% of African Americans who smoke menthol cigarettes would try to quit.

Menthol ban weakened by tobacco industry opposition

Menthol products are therefore a lucrative market for the tobacco industry, which is doing everything it can to maintain its customer base. Menthol has been repeatedly exempted from flavored tobacco legislation due to the tobacco industry’s massive lobbying efforts. For decades, tobacco companies have made strategic financial contributions and worked to align themselves with African-American leaders, politicians, and media outlets who have mounted massive opposition campaigns against policy efforts to protect the health of African Americans. In 2020, the tobacco industry has stepped up legal action to oppose local bans on flavored tobacco products in the United States.[2]-[3].

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has the power to regulate the sale of tobacco products, is expected to rule on menthol cigarettes by April 29 in a lawsuit filed by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, or AATCLC. The group sued the FDA for failing to regulate menthol despite Congress's request to do so in 2009.[4]In an April 19 article, the Biden administration is also reportedly considering limiting the amount of nicotine allowed in tobacco products to reduce addiction and banning the sale of menthol cigarettes at the federal level.[5].