The Black community is disproportionately negatively effected by the use of menthol cigarettes.
On April 9, anti-smoking groups launched lawsuits against the U.S. government over the delay in passing an upcoming ban proposal on menthol cigarettes.
Dr. Yolanda Lawson, the president of the National Medical Association, said in a statement, “As African American physicians, we are deeply disturbed at the continuing delays in FDA’s finalizing of the ban on menthol cigarettes.”
She continued, “Our patients, more than any other group, become disabled and die prematurely due to the continued use of these cigarettes.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of all people who smoke cigarettes started while they were still adolescents and continued consistently smoking to adulthood.
“The FDA’s research confirms that a menthol ban would save lives,”, the executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, Laurent Huber, told the public. “There is no scientific reason to delay finalizing this rule.
Overall, the smoking of cigarettes has decreased in the past twenty years but unfortunately, there has been an uptick in menthol smoking. This change has been reflected in racial minorities, women, and individuals affected with mental health issues cigarette smoking overall has decreased over the past two decades, but there has been an increase of menthol smokers, specifically among young adults, racial minorities, women, and people with mental health issues.
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Source: Black Enterprise
