DELAWARE– U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons (both D-Del.) are pushing the federal government to finalize a ban on menthol cigarettes.
The senators expressed their concerns in a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OBM) Director Shalanda Young.
“We are extremely concerned that the rule is now expected to be released in March 2024, which is two years after the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) April 2022 announcement of the proposed rule,” the senators wrote. “Likewise, we are also awaiting a final rule to ban all flavors in cigars, a proposed rule that was also announced in April 2022,”
Coons and Carper say despite the documented public health impacts of menthol cigarettes – with advertisements largely targeted at Black consumers – formal action by the FDA has stalled for over a decade.
The agency first sought to regulate menthol cigarettes in 2013 – announcing in 2019 it was considering a ban. In 2022, the FDA said it intended to establish and enforce a ban.
Dr. Brian King, director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products Director Dr. Brian King says the agency is working through the standard processes to institute such a ban.
“Finalizing these two product standards remains a top priority for the FDA,” he said. “The posting of both rules on the OMB website means they have reached the final step of review for regulatory documents.”
The senators say the letter is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the NAACP.
But not everyone in Delaware is in agreement on the ban, some, like Ronnie Johnson who himself chooses Menthol say it may just makes things worse,
"If they stop smoking those, they’ll just find something else to smoke. I mean maybe they’ll stop smoking cigarettes, but then what else you got?” said Johnson.
But others, like David Coffin from Delmar says he's all for it if it means helping the next generation,
“I hate to see the young people get into something that can cause them health problems later on, yeah so – ban it, ban it, ban it," said Coffin.
