Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Highwood) applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. | Photo Courtesy of Julie Morrison/Facebook
Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Highwood) applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. | Photo Courtesy of Julie Morrison/Facebook
Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Highwood) supported the federal agency's decision to prohibit menthol tobacco cigarettes and flavored cigars due to their link to deadly health diseases.
However, the Food and Drug Administration's ruling is not immediate, an NBC news reported noted. Those products will still be available for two years, giving time for smoking rehabilitation programs to develop corresponding addiction programs.
"This is a crucial step toward curbing young people’s interest in smoking," Morrison said in an April 29 Facebook post. "I applaud the FDA for its decision to ban these products, but we can’t stop there. We must work to ban flavored vaping products that lure children into addiction."
The move satisfies advocates who have pushed for a ban for many years, serving as a starting point toward a regulatory system that would help the country shift away from products containing menthol products, which produce a cooling sensation on an individual's throat to inhale nicotine better. The FDA's determinants could influence the future health and potential recovery of black smokers, of whom 80% use menthol cigarettes, compared to 30% for white smokers, NBC News reported.
"For generations, the tobacco industry has intentionally targeted black and other communities with marketing of menthol cigarettes, resulting in tobacco-related death and disease as well as health disparities," Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association, said in a statement.
The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and the group Action on Smoking and Health have jointly sued the FDA, demanding the ban. University of California professor of Healthy Policy Valerie Yerger contributed to the lawsuit, highlighting 47,000 black Americans who have died of smoking-related diseases in the last decade.
"With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products," acting FDA commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement.
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