Black Smokers, White Smokers, And Menthol

The United States Congress is currently debating granting to the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. In seeking a reduction in youth smoking, the proposed legislation would allow the FDA to ban clove, cinnamon, and other flavored cigarattes, but would exempt from regulation mentholated cigarettes comprising more than one quarter of the $70 billion market in the United States.

Consider this: "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 one in four white smokers." According to the CDC, menthol "may increase the absorption of harmful smoking constituents," and other evidence suggests that smokers of mentholated cigarettes experience greater difficulty in kicking the habit. Black men get lung cancer at a rate 50 percent higher than white men, according to another report. "One theory suggests that menthol in cigarettes, by providing an additional pleasurable sensory cue to smokers, reinforces addiction."

For more on the marketing of menthol and other cigarettes to African Americans, see this story.