Where we stand: Regulating flavored tobacco products

ruth Initiative joined the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council to call for FDA to issue a rule banning the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, in an open letter to President Barack Obama.

“The rule will protect us from our most serious silent predator, the tobacco industry, an industry relentlessly working to seduce and addict another generation of our young people,” states the council’s letter, which Truth Initiative co-signed. “Though other pressing issues may be diverting our attention, our community’s addiction to nicotine continues to kill more black people than AIDS, violence, car accidents, and non-tobacco related cancers combined.”

The letter comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new tobacco deeming regulations, which went into effect on August 8, did not address flavors.

In 2013, the FDA reported that menthol cigarettes are associated with increased smoking initiation among youth and young adults, greater addiction and decreased success in quitting smoking.