Should menthol cigarettes be banned?

The Congressional Black Caucus is leading an effort to push the government toward greater regulation of menthol cigarettes, which are popular among African Americans and considered by some to be more dangerous than traditional cigarettes.

"We are very aware and gravely concerned about the disproportionate incidence of lung cancer in the African-American community and, along with so many minority health experts, have long been concerned about the role menthol may play," Congresswoman Donna Christensen (D-VI) told the New York Times on Monday.

In an interview with The Daily Voice on Wednesday, Christensen said, "We want to establish that the FDA has the authority to regulate menthol."

Eighty-nine percent of African-American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes, compared to 29 percent of European Americans, and menthol cigarette advertisements target blacks, according to one report.

"Each year approximately 45,000 African Americans die from a preventable smoking-related disease," according to the National African American Tobacco Education Network, an anti-tobacco group. Although blacks do not appear to smoke more than any other demographic group, the organization says that African American men are "at least 50 percent more likely to develop lung cancer than white men."

Christensen is proposing to end a regulatory exemption on menthol cigarettes that currently limits the Food and Drug Administration's authority to ban it. After about 10 years of trying to push the bill in Congress, there is a fragile agreement with the FDA "regulating the battle" because of all the parties involved, she said.

The challenges don't end with Congress. "The president has said he is going to veto the bill as it is now," said Christensen. But if the bill is passed with the menthol provision in it, the government will then have "the authority to ban it based on the outcome of the research," she said.

Are menthol cigarettes worse than other cigarettes?

A study released two years ago by the University of California, San Francisco found menthol cigarettes may make it harder to give up smoking than with non-menthol cigarettes. "Mentholation of cigarettes does not seem to explain disparities in ischemic heart disease and obstructive pulmonary disease between African-Americans and European Americans in the United States, but may partially explain lower rates of smoking cessation among African-American smokers," the study concluded.

The study did not conclude that menthol cigarettes were, on their own, more harmful than other cigarettes, but it did suggest that the addictive nature of the menthol cigarettes could be a contributing factor in the disproportionate death rates for black and white smokers. The reason that blacks are more likely to die from smoking diseases is that they are much less likely to stop smoking, the researchers explained.

More research still has to be done to confirm the relationship between menthol to smoking and to determine the specific connection it might have with the high rate of lung cancer in the African American community. Depending on the proof that emerges from the research, the government may then be authorized to ban menthol.

"What we don't have is the science that simply links both," Christensen said in her interview with The Daily Voice. "We need to get the strongest language possible about the research. We need language that is stronger than what we currently have on the bill with a definite time line," she said.

After 10 years of pushing for the legislation, Christensen suggests this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "If we don't get this bill passed, there wont be any regulation on menthol or anything else," she said.

Last month, seven former federal health secretaries sent a letter to Congress warning about the potential dangers of menthol cigarettes and objecting to the special treatment of menthol in tobacco legislation. But despite the involvement of public health officials, there has been limited involvement from black organizations on the issue, according to some observers. Christensen sees the need for more work to push the bill through. "Research has to be paid for and reported quickly," she said.

Tobacco industry fights back

The specifics on Christensen's proposal are not yet clear, but it is clear that the tobacco industry plans to fight it.

Tobacco company lobbyists are already fighting against the regulation, said Christensen. She said the only company in favor of the menthol ban is Phillip Morris. But Lorillard, the cigarette company that produces Newport cigarettes, is mounting what the Times called a "counteroffensive," sending out an email message to customers recently urging them to call their Congressional representatives.

"Urgent! Urgent!...Congress wants to make it illegal to smoke Newports and other menthol cigarettes. Call your member of Congress now and tell them to oppose any amendment to ban menthol cigarettes," the email said. Newport is the number one selling menthol cigarette in the U.S.

Located in Greensboro, North Carolina, Lorillard is the nation's oldest and third largest tobacco company. It was started in 1760 by Pierre Lorillard and now manufactures a wide range of brands, including Kent, True, Old Gold, Maverick, Satin and Max. 

Television ads from decades ago depict menthol cigarettes as harmless additives that enhanced the flavor of cigarettes. "Newport is smoother," according to the jingle of one popular television commercial (shown below), "than any other menthol cigarette."  All the people depicted in the ads are, of course, white.

But as times changed, Newport's demographics seem to have changed too, and now African Americans are among the biggest consumers of the menthol cigarettes sold by the company that produces Newport.

Blacks have also been the target of the industry's advertising efforts, as seen by the two print ads in this article.

Perhaps as a result of the marketing efforts, Newport cigarettes have become popular in the black community. Just walk down 125th Street in Harlem or some other black inner city neighborhoods, and you might hear a familiar refrain: "Newport, Newport!" That's the call of unlicensed cigarette dealers selling the cigarettes by the pack. With the cost of Newports at $8 in New York City, sometimes the cigarettes are even sold individually as "loosies" on the black market.

The combination of high cigarette prices and high demand have also fueled the black market. In Kansas City over the weekend, a robber broke into a convenience store and stole thousands of dollars of cigarettes, mostly Marlboros and Newports. In another incident a few weeks ago, a robber broke into a store and stole Newport and Kool cigarettes. And in Florida last month, a gas station was robbed and a thief again stole Newport cigarettes.

The debate over menthol cigarettes, like the debate over malt liquor -- a beer with a high alcohol content -- has been going on for years. Both are popular in the African American community, and many health advocates are concerned about the racial health disparities that may be caused by the use of these controversial products.