California to End Flavored Tobacco and Nicotine Products

Most flavored tobacco and nicotine products will be banned from sale in California starting October 1^er January 2021. This bill, adopted by the California Senate this Friday, August 28, notably benefited from the support of Governor Gavin Newson[1].

While a previous attempt to ban flavored tobacco in California failed, concerns about the correlation between COVID-19 and smoking, as well as the surge in vaping among younger generations, have led to a rethinking of the need to advance the state's public health legislation.[2]Indeed, e-cigarette use among American high school students jumped 78% between 2017 and 2018. The bill bans the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products, except for premium cigars and hookah tobacco, which were exempt from the ban.

Menthol at the heart of the debate

The ban on menthol products, included in this new legislation, was the nerve center of the discussions. The tobacco industry, as such, led a virulent opposition campaign against the bill, pointing out in particular its "discriminatory" nature towards Black and Latino communities, the primary consumers of menthol tobacco products: in California, 70% of Black smokers consume menthol cigarettes, compared to only 18% of white smokers. This situation is in reality the result of massive and systematic targeting of minorities by the tobacco industry, to the point that research speaks of the "Afro-Americanization" of menthol cigarettes[3].

A health breakthrough

The ban on the sale of menthol products, far from being discriminatory, constitutes, on the contrary, social progress. Indeed, the overrepresentation of the Black community in the consumption of menthol tobacco products helps explain the inequalities between whites and African Americans in terms of health.

Keywords: flavored products, menthol, youth, California

©Generation Without Tobacco

[1] California Legislature OKs Flavored Tobacco Ban, SF Weekly, August 28, 2020, (accessed 08/31/2020)

[2] Goodbye 'banana smash' cigarillos: Governor quickly signs bill to ban flavored tobacco, Cal Matters, August 28, 2020, (accessed 08/31/2020)

[3] Gardiner, Nicotine and Tobacco Research, “ The African Americanization of menthol cigarette use in the United States ", February 2004.

https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article-abstract/6/Suppl_1/S55/1124544

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