Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency… because mainly Negros smoke those
Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time.The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking’s allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon.But those new strictures would exempt menthol — even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners and may make it harder for the addicted to kick the smoking habit. For years, public health authorities have worried that menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans.
The reason menthol is seen as politically off limits, despite those concerns, is that mentholated brands are so crucial to the American cigarette industry. They make up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion American cigarette market and are becoming increasingly important to the industry leader, Philip Morris USA, without whose lobbying support the legislation might have no chance of passage.
“I would have been in favor of banning menthol,” said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who supports the bill. “But as a practical matter that simply wasn’t doable.”
Even the head of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, a nonprofit group that has been adamantly against menthol, acknowledges that the ingredient needed to be off the bargaining table — for now — because he does not want to imperil the bill’s chances.
“The bottom line is we want the legislation,” said William S. Robinson, the group’s executive director. “But we want to reserve the right to address this issue at some critical point because of the percentage of people of African descent who use mentholated products.”
Supporters of the tobacco legislation, including the Senate bill’s sponsor, Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, say the bill addresses the potential health risks of menthol by giving the F.D.A. the authority to remove cigarette additives, including menthol, if they are proved harmful.
Menthol is particularly controversial because public health authorities have worried about its health effects on African-Americans. Nearly 75 percent of black smokers use menthol brands, compared with only about one in four white smokers.
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In case you did not know…
There is no menthol in tobacco plants.
Menthol is added to cigarettes to make the smoke feel less harsh. But the smoke is still dangerous.
Smokers of menthol cigarettes tend to hold the smoke in their lungs longer.
Holding the smoke longer allows more poisons to be absorbed.
The cooler feel of menthol masks the cheaper tobaccos that cigarette manufacturers often use in menthol brands. There is nothing refreshing or natural about menthol. Menthol is an additive put in cigarettes to make smokers believe that the cigarette is less dangerous. This is a lie.
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May 13th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Well damn, my dad smoked Salem’s for years. Does that make him a “brotha”? And yes it did contribute significantly to what killed him when I was 16.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I don’t get the point if this at all. Cloves are such a stupidly small percentage of smokes consumed, what’s the point? So since negroe’s primarily smoke menthols, menthols can’t be regulated? So it’s ok to let negroe’s continue to expose themselves to the hazards of the carcinogens of menthol cigarettes longer because, uhm why again? This has discrimination/product liability lawsuit written all over it.
Our congress at work ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
mgnmfrc1: You nailed it.
Liberals use the dollars from cigarette taxes to fund socialism, who cares if a few Negros die. We (liberals) need to keep that money coming in. If liberals were about saving lives you would ban the product.
Banning all of the flavoring products except that which kills Negros is blatantly racist!
This is why I hate fucken liberals and their hypocrisy.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Hey Theresa,
Same with my Dad - on both counts.
Menthol in ‘da woodpile, I guess.
Damn, and I do so love greens - explains a lot…
Hey Snoop! There you go - you want racist, black-killin’ cigarette? Ban all flavor additives except Greens!
- MuscleDaddy
May 14th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Cloves are a ridiculously small percentage of cigarette sales, but they *are* dangerous to the young’uns. They don’t see cloves as “real” cigarettes, and there are quite a few peer groups who view smoking as uncool, with the exception of cloves. Also, they tend to just LOOK so damn cool—I mean, a matte black cigarette with a metallic gold band? THAT ROXORS. They also smell much better than regular cigarettes, and the scent on your clothes and hair isn’t as easily recoginizeable as tobacco–a big plus for the underaged smoker whose mom would hit the roof if she caught ‘em.
That being said, I do wish they’d ban menthol. It’s all I can smoke, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to quit if I couldn’t get my hands on them. Of course, I’ve ordered cheap cigarettes on the Internet from Russia before, so maybe that wouldn’t work out so well. (Funny story about that–I once handed a pack of Russian Virginia Slims to the Russian mail-order-bride who worked a few cubes down from me, and asked her which block of unreadable text was the “smoking will kill you” warning. Yeah, she literally laughed until she cried.)