Biden administration again delays menthol-cigarette ban as Black support for Biden drops; anti-smoking advocates push back

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Kentucky Health News

The Biden administration has again delayed issuing a decision to eliminate menthol cigarettes, with plans to finalize the final rule next March, according to an updated regulatory agenda posted online by the White House Office of Management and Budget. 

Administration officials told The Washington Post that the delay comes after "fierce lobbying from critics who warn that a prohibition could anger some Black smokers who favor the product and could hurt President Biden's reelection prospects." Biden's support among Black voters has dropped about 20 percentage points in the past year, NBC News reports.

Four other officials told the Post, on the condition of anonymity, that the process could be delayed even further. 

The delay follows intense pressure from tobacco lobbyists, HealthDay reports.

Yolonda C. Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement that it was "disturbing that this delay comes just two weeks after the tobacco industry and its army of lobbyists met with top officials at the White House." Further, she says the delay "allows the tobacco industry to continue profiting at the expense of Black lives." 

Richardson added, "The scientific evidence shows that menthol cigarettes are more addictive, easier for kids to start smoking and harder for smokers to quit. For decades, the tobacco industry has marketed these products to Black communities, causing devastating and disproportionate harm to the health of Black Americans. . . . Research shows that prohibiting menthol cigarettes will save up to 654,000 lives within 40 years, including the lives of 255,000 Black Americans."

When added to cigarettes and cigars, menthol’s minty taste and cooling effect limit throat irritation, making the products more appealing — especially new and young smokers — and it interacts with nicotine to enhance its addictive effects and makes quitting smoking harder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to research published earlier this year in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 43% of adults who smoked cigarettes in the past month in 2020 used menthol, with use most common among Black adults, at 80%. 

Prior to the announcement of the delay, the rule was widely expected to be published in late 2023 or early January, although it was likely be further delayed by legal challenges.  

The delay set in motion a string of statements from anti-smoking advocates calling on the Biden administration to issue the final rule by the end of this year. 

"Ending menthol cigarettes is pivotal to eliminating the dramatic health inequities in who uses tobacco products in the United States and who is most affected by tobacco-caused disease and death, said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.

"Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. and claims 45,000 lives every year among Black Americans alone. A recent study quantified the disproportionate harms from menthol cigarettes to Black Americans, finding that menthol cigarettes were responsible for 1.5 million new smokers, 157,000 smoking-related premature deaths and 1.5 million life-years lost among Black Americans from 1980 to 2018. Halting the sale of menthol cigarettes lays the groundwork for reversing decades of disparities in tobacco use, disease and death in Black and Brown communities." 

Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, noted that the Food and Drug Administration has had authority to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars for 14 years and that any delay in doing so "only benefits the tobacco industry at the expense of public health. Tobacco is a primary driver of all cancer disparities, and the number one cause of cancer deaths nationwide, and flavors like menthol have been proven to make it easier to start and harder to quit using deadly products. There is no scientific rationale for permitting any flavored tobacco product to remain on the market. FDA stated that a comprehensive end to the sale of menthol cigarettes is projected to result in 324,000 to 654,000 fewer smoking related deaths." 

The FDA is also pursuing a ban on flavored cigars and new limits on nicotine in cigarettes, although the process of finalizing those rules is to be delayed until at least March as well, the Post reports. 

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, also issued a statement of concern, urging the administration to issue "strong final rules without delay." She said, "Each day we wait for the final rules to be released is another day Big Tobacco will hook new users and target communities with menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars."

Tobacco companies continue to oppose the ban, "insisting science shows menthols pose no greater risk than other cigarettes," the Post reports. "R.J. Reynolds, which makes Newport, the nation’s top-selling menthol brand, said in a statement Tuesday that a ban would hurt small businesses, dent tax revenue and contribute to a dangerous illegal market."