Black lawmakers want menthol cigarette restrictions
The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for changes in the House tobacco-regulation bill. The lawmakers are demanding that the legislation place restrictions on menthol cigarettes, the type of cigarettes African-American smokers prefer, reports The New York Times. The 43-member caucus is targeting a provision in the bill that would ban candy-, fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes but specifically does not touch menthol. Over the past few weeks former Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan and Black anti-smoking groups have spoken out about the provision. Rep. Donna M. Christensen, the Congressional delegate from the United States Virgin Islands who heads the Black caucus’s Health Task Force, said the caucus was working with Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is House bill’s sponsor, to address concerns about menthol. “We are very aware and gravely concerned about the disproportionate incidence of lung cancer in the African-American community and, along with so many minority health experts, have long been concerned about the role menthol may play,” Christensen said in an e-mail to a Times reporter. The representative did not say exactly how the proposed changes would be worded, but did say the proposed changes would be based on research and reporting about menthol and to give the Food and Drug Administration explicit authority to ban menthol. Some lawmakers had indicated that a menthol cigarette provision might be a deal breaker. Cigarette companies have been working to keep menthol cigarettes out of the bill, which would place cigarettes regulation under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health officials have raised concerns about the possibility that menthol cigarettes might increase tobacco addiction and possibly cancer rates among Black smokers.

TAGS: african-american, black, caucus, cigarette, menthol, smokers

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