FDA Finalizes Ban on Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars in the United States
May 17, 2022
Par: National Committee Against Smoking
Dernière mise à jour: May 17, 2022
Temps de lecture: 4 minutes
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unveiled two proposals to effectively regulate the ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in the United States, a year after announcing the ban.[1]A move that many public health experts have hailed as the government's most significant action in more than a decade of tobacco control efforts.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued new standards for tobacco products containing menthol and other flavors, which are disproportionately consumed by youth and African Americans. The first proposed rule (RIN 0910-AI60) would prohibit tobacco companies and retailers from manufacturing, distributing, and selling cigarettes containing menthol as a flavor. The second (RIN 0910-AI28) would ban all characterizing flavors, including menthol, in cigars. Both rules are expected to be finalized after a public comment period.
These proposals represent a long-awaited step in the FDA's efforts to address tobacco-related health disparities.
A public health measure to prevent youth initiation and reduce mortality
In April 2021, the agency announced that it would expand the menthol ban as part of its efforts to reduce disease and death caused by tobacco use. In 2019, there were more than 18.5 million menthol cigarette smokers aged 12 and older in the United States, with particularly high rates of use among adolescents, young adults, African Americans, and other ethnic groups. Published modeling studies have estimated a 40-year reduction in smoking of 15% if menthol cigarettes were no longer available in the United States. These studies also estimate that between 324,000 and 654,000 tobacco-attributable deaths overall (between 92,000 and 238,000 among African Americans) could be prevented over a 40-year period.
Furthermore, cigar flavors such as strawberry, grape, and cocoa increase the appeal and facilitate the initiation of little cigars, particularly among youth and young adults. More than half a million youth in the United States consume flavored cigars, and in recent years, more youth have been initiating tobacco through a cigar than through a cigarette.
Menthol Ban: Industry Opportunity to Promote New Products
The ban was heavily lobbied by the tobacco industry and its allies and eventually passed. Kingsley Wheaton, chief marketing officer of British American Tobacco, which owns Reynolds, the largest seller of menthol cigarettes in the United States, said the company believes there are more effective ways to reduce tobacco harm than banning menthol. And it has highlighted the products it touts as alternatives: vaping products or heated tobacco.
In France and throughout the European Union, following the ban on menthol for manufactured cigarettes and rolling tobacco that came into force on May 20, 2020, the main tobacco manufacturers have transferred their marketing operations to their new products such as heated tobacco and vaping products not affected by the ban.[2].
Keywords: United States, FDA, menthol, flavors, tobacco, new products
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[1] Press release, FDA Proposes Rules Prohibiting Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars to Prevent Youth Initiation, Significantly Reduce Tobacco-Related Disease and Death, Food and Drug Administration, published April 28, 2022, accessed May 13, 2022
[2] Generation without tobacco, Menthol: one year later, where are we?, published on May 20, 2021, consulted on May 13, 2022
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