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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it will ban all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

The agency has believed for nearly a decade that the smoke produced by menthol cigarettes is milder than traditional cigarettes and has played a huge role in attracting young people to smoke. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made a clear commitment to ban menthol for the first time in 2018, but made concessions under strong opposition from the tobacco industry and its allies.

FDA’s Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement: “Prohibiting menthol in cigarettes-the last permitted flavor-and banning the use of all flavors in cigars will help save lives, especially those Disproportionately affected by these deadly products."

It is not clear when the ban will take effect. The FDA press release announcing the decision did not include the effective date of the ban. Instead, it promised to enact a regulation banning these products within "next year."

FDA officials rejected STAT’s request to provide an estimate of when the ban will be finalized. 

"It's really unpredictable," said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Tobacco Center, who noted that the previous menthol regulations received more than 175,000 comments, all of which required the FDA to consider. "There are very important considerations, starting from legal considerations, about doing this thing well."

The ban came after the European Union and Canada made similar decisions. Many states, including Massachusetts and California, have also tried to enact their own menthol bans.

Public health advocates insist that banning menthol will help improve the health disparity between whites and blacks in the United States, and congratulate the US Food and Drug Administration for its actions. They believe that black Americans consume menthol at a higher rate than other ethnic groups because the tobacco industry positions menthol marketing in the black community.

Zeller, director of the Tobacco Center, cited a study that claimed that the menthol ban in the United States would prompt 923,000 smokers to quit smoking within the first 13 to 17 months after the ban, including 230,000 African Americans. 

"The FDA has taken historic, life-saving steps. Menthol has long been the most sacred taste of the tobacco industry, causing millions of people to become addicted to their deadly products," said Richard Besser, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Said in a statement. "The ban on menthol cigarettes is the most sure thing to save lives, eliminate great suffering, and reduce the cost of healthcare."

The tobacco company is expected to challenge the decision in court. They argued that, compared with other forms of smoking, the FDA has no legal basis to regulate menthol cigarettes. If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision is established, it will reduce the U.S. cigarette market by about one-third and cost the industry billions of dollars.

Opponents of the ban say it will encourage the black market for these products or simply force these smokers to smoke other types of cigarettes.

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"Evidence from other countries shows that the menthol ban is not a magic wand that will prompt most users to quit nicotine completely. American Electronic Cigarette Association President Gregory Conley said in a statement that if most menthol and cigar smokers The response is that by switching to Marlboro or using illegal products purchased from the street, there will be no huge public health benefits. The FDA must now allow flavored e-cigarette products to remain on the market as a substitute for former menthol smokers.

Public health organizations believe that this ban will prompt smokers to quit smoking eventually. A recent study published on BMJ found that 21.5% of menthol smokers surveyed two years after the Canadian ban had quit smoking, but 59.1% switched to non-menthol cigarettes, and another 19.5% smoked aboriginal tribes. Menthol.

Certain civil rights organizations also worry that banning menthol cigarettes will lead to increased supervision of black communities. In the agency's statement, the FDA promised that the ban will only target "manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers, and retailers" of menthol products. 

“The FDA cannot and will not enforce the possession or use of menthol cigarettes or any tobacco products by individual consumers,” the agency wrote. 

The FDA's decision was due to a public health organization filed a lawsuit against the agency in 2020, after the agency failed to respond to its 2013 so-called citizen petition calling on the FDA to ban these products.

However, the agency does not advance plans to reduce the nicotine content of cigarettes to non-addictive levels. Woodcock told reporters on Thursday that the idea is "still under consideration."

"It's on the table, but we haven't finished our deliberations on this matter," Woodcock added.

Nicholas Florko reports on the intersection of politics and health policy. He is the author of the newsletter "DC Diagnosis".

Do you have to face alcohol? So good, let's see if you use some ordinary old yeast to make some non-contact menthol cigars!

Banning menthol cigarettes is absurd. Next, we will be told what color we can use on which day and day. It looks less and less like a place of freedom.

I am not a person who never smokes and eats healthy. Two of my aunts have cancer and one is a vegetarian. Fortunately or unfortunately, Ur messed up. God bless.

Do they really think people will quit smoking by banning menthol cigarettes? I am a white American woman. I started smoking when I was 14 years old. The first cigarette was GPC. The second cigarette was a cool menthol. I got it from a friend and I continued to smoke non-menthol cigarettes, gpc's and Marbles for many years, and then I didn’t like their taste, so I went to Kohl’s Doral Menthol the Pall Mall Menthol. I’m

You can't ban flavored cigars or menthol, this is an option. Please be the United States. You can't ban these things. The place may be closed for business.

I don’t smoke, but if they ban menthol, my wife will kill me

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