EXPERTS ADVISORY
The FDA has announced that it will ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars within the next year, a move the tobacco industry has pushed against for the last decade. University of Michigan experts can comment.
David Mendez
Thuy Le of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health recently authored a study showing that menthol cigarettes contributed to 378,000 premature deaths in the United States between 1980 and 2018.
“Successful implementation of the FDA’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives over a short period and reduce health inequalities, particularly for African Americans,” Mendez said. “While menthol cigarettes were responsible for around 380,000 premature deaths in the U.S. over the last four decades, a disproportionately large number of those deaths occurred among the African American population.”