Tag: menthol cigarettes

Millions were spent by the tobacco industry to fight the efforts of lawmakers and citizens to stop killing smokers, primarily targeting Black communities, with constant invasion of poisonous addictive product. SB 793, which will prohibit the sale of flavored and mentholated products in California, awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

Civil rights attorneys John Burris and Adante Pointer filed a legal claim against the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department on behalf of the 14-year-old boy who was brutally assaulted by Sacramento Sheriff Deputy Brian Fowell. Deputy Fowell is contracted out to the City of Rancho Cordova as a police officer.

I am a mother and a daughter, and I will not be silent because my pain can be someone else’s voice. The makers of menthol cigarettes have taken my heart, and ripped it out, with no remorse.

Menthol has been the tobacco industry’s recruitment tool for far too long. It has been added to cigarettes for nearly a century, masking tobacco’s harsh flavor, making the smoke feel smoother and easier to inhale – but that ease comes with a price. The smoothness of menthol allows smokers to inhale more deeply, so harmful particles can settle lower in the lungs. Menthol cigarettes are also harder to stop – people who use menthol cigarettes have a lower rate of successfully quitting.

On Tuesday, June 20, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass legislation that will make San Francisco the first municipality to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. The law goes into effect April 1, 2018. The legislation, introduced by District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen, argued that flavored tobacco is disproportionately marketed to vulnerable populations such as children and young adults, African-Americans and LGBTQ people.

The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), a nonprofit consortium of organizations dedicated to research, community collaboration and public engagement, is working to stop the preventable deaths of African Americans due to the consumption of menthol-flavored cigarettes engineered by the tobacco companies to addict Black people and others including Asian, Latino and LGBTQ populations.

In observance of World No Tobacco Day, African American anti-tobacco advocates in California and across the country are calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban menthol in cigarettes and other tobacco products. Advocates also are urging concerned groups and individuals to sign on to a historic citizen’s petition filed with the FDA in support of this national effort.