2008-07-16 23:40:52 - A new study showing that the tobacco industry manipulated menthol levels in an effort to attract young children into smoking (by masking the harsh taste of smoke for first time smokers), and to increase the addictive hold of nicotine on smokers, could delay a bill to give the Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over cigarettes.

Because the bill would ban the use of all other flavoring additives (like cloves and peppermint) but permit the use of menthol, and since menthol is overwhelming used by African American smokers -- including Black children -- it has already been damned for being racially insensitive if not outright racist by the Congressional Black Caucus, former HHH Secretary and African

American Louis W. Sullivan and most other former HHS Secretaries, the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, and many others, says Professor John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national antismoking organization.

These major spokesmen have said 'the bill caves to the financial interests of tobacco companies and discriminates against African Americans-the segment of our population at greatest risk for the killing and crippling smoking-related diseases.

It sends a message that African American youngsters are valued less than white youngsters.' Or, as Sullivan bluntly stated: "If we're banning things such as clove and peppermint, then we should ban menthol, . . . "If it doesn't happen, this bill will be discriminatory against African-Americans."

ASH, in letters to Congressional leaders, as well as major Black organizations and spokespersons, said that "sacrificing African American children to mollify the largest killer of Blacks in the U.S. (Philip Morris, which supports the bill) is nothing short of grotesque and obscene, and may well be counterproductive and totally unnecessary since any delays caused by the need to remove this racist loophole are likely to strengthen the bill."

ASH noted that removing the "racist menthol loophole" might delay the bill's passage until the next Congress, but suggested that this would make the bill even stronger.

Under either Obama or McCain, the new bill would not face the veto threatened by Bush -- one which is forcing proponents to make major concessions to Philip Morris and many opposed to the bill -- and would be considered by a Congress almost certain to be more concerned about public health regulation.

ASH notes that the discriminatory effect of the bill would be clear. As former ASH Trustee Dr. Louis W. Sullivan has pointed out: 'Nearly 75% of African American smokers use menthol cigarettes.

A recent survey found that among teen smokers, 81 percent of African Americans smoke menthol cigarettes compared to only 32 percent of Whites and 45 percent of Hispanics. We also know that 90 percent of adult smokers are hooked as teens."

Some argue that the bill isn't racist because the FDA could ban menthol. But it would have to show through exhaustive scientific investigation that menthol increases the harm of smoking -- something which is almost impossible under the FDA's standards of proof, and a requirement for none of the other flavorings.

It's ironic, said Banzhaf, that evidence showing that the tobacco companies manipulated nicotine in cigarettes first led to the FDA's attempt to regulate them, and is now largely behind the bill to make such regulation a reality.

Now new evidence that the tobacco companies also manipulated menthol may lead to a much stronger bill, and a bill without the clear racial overtones of one which deliberately exempts the one flavoring which clearly targets Black kids and adults, and makes it much harder for them to quit once they become addicted.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // (703) 527-8418
ash.org