Many public health experts hailed the Food and Drug Administration's plan to ban the sale of menthol-flavor cigarettes in the United States as the most meaningful action in a decade of tobacco control efforts.
According to a government survey, the proposed ban is expected to have the greatest impact on black smokers, who use more cigarettes with menthol than white smokers. The ban could reduce the burden of chronic disease and limit the number of lives cut short by one of the most hazardous legal products.
The proposed ban would improve the health and reduce the mortality risk of current smokers by substantially decreasing their consumption and increasing the likelihood of cessation, according to the F.D.A. commissioner.
Menthol can be made in a lab from the mint plant. It is included in cigarettes to make smoking less harsh. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African American men have the highest rates of lung cancer in America, because they have the highest rates of menthol cigarettes.
Taking menthol cigarettes off the market is expected to further reduce smoking levels and reduce the number of young people taking up the habit. If the United States experiences the same result as Canada, 1.3 million people would quit smoking and hundreds of thousands of premature deaths could be avoided.
This is a landmark intervention to reduce the number of preventable deaths.
The proposed ban was announced after a lot of lobbying. The proposed rule will be open for public comments for at least 60 days. It will take at least a year for it to take effect.
The tobacco companies are likely to fight the rule in court.
The F.D.A. has been regulating tobacco products for almost 13 years, and the ban on menthol will be the most significant action it has taken.
The rule doesn't cover menthol e-cigarettes. The F.D.A. is currently reviewing all of the products that are sold in the US to see if they can stay on the market. The F.D.A. had regulatory authority over these products. The agency has approved marketing for some tobacco-flavored e-liquids. The agency is considering how to rule on some of the top selling devices.
Public health advocates want a ban on menthol. The Tobacco Control Act of 2009, which gave the F.D.A. authority to regulate tobacco products, exempts menthol from the tobacco flavors that would be banned.
The exception rankled public health groups and a group of former U.S. cabinet health secretaries, who noted the 47,000 Black lives lost each year to smoking-related disease. The health secretaries wrote in a letter to the Senate that allowing menthol cigarettes to remain on the market would hurt the financial interests of tobacco companies.
The matter was left to the F.D.A. and its advisers. Agency advisers said removing menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health, but stopped short of calling for a ban. The F.D.A. said that it made it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.
Scott Gottlieb, the F.D.A. commissioner at the time, announced his intent to seek a menthol cigarette ban. He left the agency. The agency said last year that it would eliminate flavors in mass-produced cigars that are popular with Black and Latino teenagers.
The American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics were among the groups that met with the White House. The Public Law Health Center reviewed Canada's experience with banning menthol cigarettes and found that 59 percent of smokers picked up unflavored cigarettes, 20 percent of smokers quit and nearly the same proportion continued to buy them on Native reservations.
The Tax Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform warned the White House that a ban on menthol cigarettes would cost the government as much as $6 billion in the first year.
Supporters of the ban say it is an important step towards reducing disease in the United States, but it has divided Black communities. The Rev. Al Sharpton has harshly criticized it, and recently secured a meeting with White House officials along with King & Spalding, a lobbying firm with an extensive record of advocating for the cigarette maker formerly known as R.J. Reynolds.
Mr. Sharpton wrote a letter to Susan Rice, the Domestic Policy Council director, saying that the ban would lead Black smokers to use unregulated herbal tobacco products, which would lead to criminal activity.
One of the world's largest cigarette companies and maker of Newport menthol cigarettes is Reynolds.
Reynolds wrote a letter to the White House suggesting that the F.D.A. extend the timeline on a ban to ensure local enforcement does not roll out in a way that creates negative effects.
Mr. Sharpton wrote that a ban on menthol cigarettes would impose serious risks.
Carol McGruder, co- founder of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, said that Mr. Sharpton and others take tobacco funding. She said that the need for police reform is real, but that the lives taken early by tobacco are much more.
Ms. McGruder said that leaving products on the market that are killing you is crazy.
The N.A.A.C.P. says it has not taken funding from the tobacco industry in two decades. White said that her organization rejected the idea that a ban on menthol would make the police more aggressive.
She said that it is a smokescreen and distracts from the work of reducing health disparity and smoking related chronic conditions.
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