Black Doctors Call on Obama to Ban Menthol Cigarettes

[NorthernVike 2,080]

African-American doctors are calling on President Barack Obama to ban sales of menthol-flavored cigarettes, which government data show are heavily preferred among black smokers.

The African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, a nonprofit anti-smoking advocacy group, launched a public campaign this week asking Obama to direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to remove all so-called mentholated tobacco products from the marketplace.

The FDA found in 2013 that menthol cigarettes likely pose a greater public health risk than regular cigarettes, especially among African-Americans, but it stopped short of recommending a ban.

A letter detailing the new request was delivered to the president last month, Dr. Phillip Gardiner, the council's co-chairman, said Wednesday.

"The punch line here about menthol is it allows the poisons in tobacco cigarettes to go down easier," Gardiner said in an interview with NBC Washington.

"Young African-Americans die disproportionately from tobacco-related disease compared to other people in the population," said Gardiner, who is policy and regulatory sciences program officer for the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program at the University of California-Berkeley.

Government and medical data back him up.

According to the American Lung Association, smoking-related illnesses are the single biggest preventable cause of death among African-Americans, killing about 45,000 a year. And "the key thing that African-Americans smoke is menthol cigarettes," Gardiner said.

The FDA's 2013 review found that menthol flavoring is associated with "increased smoking initiation" by younger people and greater addiction among all smokers. (The FDA banned fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes for the same reasons in 2009.)

But it didn't ban mentholated tobacco products — the kind preferred by a majority of African-American smokers, according to research published last month in the American Journal of Public Health.

 

They do so to such a degree, in fact, that nearly three-quarters of all black smokers ages 18 to 25 buy one specific brand — Newport menthols — according to the new research, which adds that Newport menthols are the cigarettes of choice for two-thirds of all African-American smokers ages 12 to 17.

Researchers for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found similar trends in 2010, reporting that 83 percent of black adult smokers and 72 percent of underage black smokers prefer menthol-flavored brands.

In its letter to Obama, the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council called menthol tobacco addiction "an issue of social justice, one which we have been defenseless in adequately addressing to protect our people."

"What we are asking of you, President Obama, can be accomplished rapidly with the stroke of a pen," it said. "Your strong and decisive leadership can give our community a fighting chance against the number one killer of Black people, tobacco."

R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Newport, one of the most popular menthol brands, did not respond to an after-hours request for comment.

 

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/black-doctors-call-on-obama-to-ban-menthol-cigarettes/ar-BBwavXy?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=HPCDHP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which is worse, Newport's or cops.

[tubby_mcgee 686]

Isn't that racist? Saying that blacks prefer something? And what are the doctors basing their info that "blacks prefer menthol" on"? A wild guess?

 

Wait...ohh...I see. The doctors based their assumption on statistics.

If I use statistics to make a comment on blacks, somehow that is racist.

 

Also....if I were to say "Blacks make better running backs in the NFL", is that racist? Or is it not racist because it has a positive connotation?

[rholio 339]

Can't wait for all of the bored Repubtards crying if Obama does this, or if he doesn't do this.

[IGotWorms 3,315]

Get a focking life guys. Seriously.

[edjr 5,564]

Watermelon flavor never took off

[NorthernVike 2,080]

Can't wait for all of the bored Repubtards crying if Obama does this, or if he doesn't do this.

 

 

Obama's not going to do shiot about this. He smokes Newport's after all.

[NorthernVike 2,080]

Get a focking life guys. Seriously.

 

 

No, getting a life would be a call to ban all cigarettes. But lets just ban menthol because that's what the blacks smoke more of.

[edjr 5,564]

 

 

No, getting a life would be a call to ban all cigarettes. But lets just ban menthol because that's what the blacks smoke more of.

 

you must be new to the USA.

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

 

No other color!

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Can't wait for all of the bored Repubtards crying if Obama does this, or if he doesn't do this.

Bans work so well, I can understand why the libtards love them so much.

[edjr 5,564]

Bans work so well, I can understand why the libtards love them so much.

 

I think for posterity we should call it "THE WAR ON MENTHOL"

[jerryskids 5,206]

Isn't that racist? Saying that blacks prefer something? And what are the doctors basing their info that "blacks prefer menthol" on"? A wild guess?

 

Wait...ohh...I see. The doctors based their assumption on statistics.

 

 

This is kind of what I was thinking while reading that. Also I was wondering what percentage of white and other races smoke those?

 

Also also, does the president have the authority to arbitrarily ban an otherwise legal product?

[Hardcore troubadour 12,649]

Smoke me if you got em. And grape soda has more sugar than other flavors. And malt liquor has more alchohol. And McDonalds and on and on. Maybe it's what those people want?

[Hardcore troubadour 12,649]

 

This is kind of what I was thinking while reading that. Also I was wondering what percentage of white and other races smoke those?

 

Also also, does the president have the authority to arbitrarily ban an otherwise legal product?

White trash that mimic black "culture" smoke Newports.

[RLLD 3,455]

Banning ALL tobacco products would be rather awesome, but also improbable.

 

I would like to see the study that supports these assertions.

[edjr 5,564]

Banning ALL tobacco products would be rather awesome, but also improbable.

 

I would like to see the study that supports these assertions.

 

May as well ban GAS too

[rholio 339]

Banning ALL tobacco products would be rather awesome, but also improbable.

 

I would like to see the study that supports these assertions.

Enough to click on one of the links?

[iam90sbaby 2,125]

Banning ALL tobacco products would be rather awesome, but also improbable.

 

I would like to see the study that supports these assertions.

 

I don't smoke cigarettes, but I don't see how that would be awesome.

 

Every new law is a little less freedom for us all.

[NorthernVike 2,080]

Banning ALL tobacco products would be rather awesome, but also improbable.

 

I would like to see the study that supports these assertions.

 

 

Leave cigars out of this focker.

[Cruzer 1,992]

I don't smoke.. But if I had to, it would be Newports.

[Reality 2,710]

 

 

Leave cigars out of this focker.

 

[RLLD 3,455]

OK, so the links appear to support the assertions of the doctor.

 

Good luck to him, hope it works out.

[Hardcore troubadour 12,649]

Now Obama has to say something about his own menthol habit. He will find some way to lecture everyone else.

[RLLD 3,455]

Some of these kids might look like his son, doesn't that mean he cares more about them.

[hoytdwow 202]

That's Kool with me

[Hardcore troubadour 12,649]

Some of these kids might look like his son, doesn't that mean he cares more about them.

"Let me get shorts on that square, yo".

[crackattack 513]

This shitt makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Let's ban smoking but legalize pot. How about we legalize weed and leave cigarettes alone. Both would require you to be of legal age and both are adult decision. Focking people want government to make adult decision for them. It's pathetic.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

 

The industry also has raised concerns that restrictions on menthol would lead to a black market for the cigarettes.

 

[RLLD 3,455]

Oh man I missed that.....unintended hilarity....

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Oh man I missed that.....unintended hilarity....

Most racist study ever.

[tanatastic 2,061]

Oh god, you thought BLM started riots? would be mass hysteria if they could no longer chain smoke menthol ciggs.

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,584]

jeez you missed the biggest issue I see here

 

there is actually an African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council

 

wtf is that, where is my whitey Tobacco Council

 

also African-American, is the most racist term we have

[BunnysBastatrds 1,916]

They had a black guy on a local talk radio show here say that the two OO in KOOL were racists because they represented handcuffs and the majority of people who smoke KOOL's are black.

[Djgb13 2,338]

So...they want to PURPOSELY piss off black people by taking away their cigarettes? That makes a lot of sense

[tubby_mcgee 686]

Isn't there a cigarette brand ending in "black"? Like Marlboro Black?

[edjr 5,564]

Black Doctors?

 

all 4 of them?

[wiffleball 4,640]

I thought everything black people did or said or Wore Or look like Was an absolutely sacred part of their culture not to be messed with?

 

Hell, apparently Beyonce has a song About black nostrils. No kidding.

 

And God forbid you make fun of ashy skin Or stupid hairstyles.

[Voltaire 4,559]

 

And God forbid you make fun of ashy skin Or stupid hairstyles.

They're not stupid, they're creative and distinctive.

[Djgb13 2,338]

They're not stupid, they're creative and distinctive.

When you don't wash your hair for years I call you stupid

[tanatastic 2,061]

Ever been up close to a dreadlock? Gross.

[Djgb13 2,338]

Ever been up close to a dreadlock? Gross.

Yep. My high school was majority black. Honestly man some of the guys on the football team didn't wash but like once a week. And the ones that had dreads told me they don't wash their hair cause it messes up the dreads. So they hadn't washed their hair in 2 years. Ever since then every time I see someone with dreads I can't help but think about that