Opinion: Black lives suffer as feds delay menthol cigarette action

The Biden Administration is holding up important action on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars that is long overdue. As Black leaders in the South Bay, we urge the White House to approve the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to prohibit menthol cigarettes nationwide or risk losing more Black lives.

The sale of select flavored cigarettes has been prohibited since 2009 but has not included menthol. In 2013, the FDA released a preliminary scientific evaluation of the public health effects of menthol and, nearly 10 years later, announced proposed product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes. The FDA submitted final rules with the White House Office of Management and Budget in October, and in December the White House delayed the decision to March. A decision has not yet been made.

For years, the tobacco industry has marketed menthol products to Black communities. Companies have distributed free samples of these deadly, addictive products in Black neighborhoods, paid students to rep cigarettes in dormitories at historically Black colleges, and conducted other manipulative marketing with devastating health outcomes.

Menthol’s minty flavor makes smoking more appealing — especially to new smokers — by masking tobacco’s harsh taste. Individuals who smoke menthol cigarettes show greater nicotine dependence and are less likely to successfully quit.

Tobacco use also remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. Sadly, these health harms disproportionately affect low-income communities and people of color. Prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes nationwide would save 654,000 lives in the United States within 40 years, including the lives of 255,000 Black folks.

Here in Santa Clara County, age-adjusted death rates from lung cancer, heart disease and stroke are two times higher for Black people compared to other racial and ethnic groups. In California, 16% of Black adults use tobacco compared with 11% of all adults.

We have been working for decades to prevent the damage of tobacco use, especially among youth. The county’s Public Health Department works with jurisdictions nationwide to implement policies that prevent the sale of flavored and vaping products, limit tobacco sales near schools, and provide funding for creative tobacco prevention programs. The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People San Jose/Silicon Valley Branch is partnering with the department to bring attention to the issue.

Such efforts have yielded concrete results. Cigarette smoking rates are far lower in Santa Clara County than in other parts of the country. Nationwide, 11.5% of adults smoked cigarettes in 2021, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Santa Clara County, adult smoking rates have been cut in half, from nearly 9% between 2013 and 2017 to 4% between 2018 and 2022. Smoking among youth is at an all-time low of 1% in the county, and tobacco use among Black high school students is lower than the overall tobacco use rates for their peers.

Santa Clara County has often been among the first in the nation to tackle the skeezy new tactics of the tobacco industry, including eliminating the sale of flavored tobacco products in stores. This area reaps the benefit in extended years of healthy living and reduced health costs.

California has also made important changes. In 2022, voters overwhelmingly upheld the state’s law banning the sale of most flavored tobacco products statewide, a popular measure that survived industry challenges. State and local governments have had to act to reduce tobacco-related illness and prevent premature death because the federal government has not.

The federal government has regulatory options unavailable to local jurisdictions and states. The FDA can regulate product standards to reduce death and disease; this includes the authority to eliminate toxic and addictive ingredients or require transparency when used.

Even with our state ban on sales of flavored tobacco products in place, people with lifelong health problems from menthol cigarette use will continue to move to California. Public resources such as Medicare will continue to be spent on tobacco-related diseases.

The South Bay needs federal action now. Prohibiting menthol cigarettes nationwide will save lives, while further delay will continue to cost lives, particularly Black lives.

Rhonda McClinton-Brown is a deputy director at the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. Rev. Jethroe Moore II is president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP.