The Trump administration wants to ban menthol cigarettes, but NC senators push back

The Trump administration wants to ban menthol cigarettes, citing their popularity with underage smokers. But North Carolina’s two Republican senators, typically fans of the administration but representing the biggest tobacco-growing state in the country, are fighting back against the proposed ban.

The Food and Drug Administration last week announced its plans to ban menthol cigarettes and cigars and to limit flavors available for vaping or electronic cigarettes. The proposal came a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a record-low 14 percent of American adults smoke cigarettes.

The FDA, in its announcement, said 54 percent of young smokers (ages 12-17) use menthol cigarettes and 70 percent of African-American youth smokers use them. Less than one-third of smokers 35 and older use menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes made up 35 percent of the U.S. cigarette market in 2016, according to the Truth Initiative, an anti-smoking group.

“These menthol-flavored products represent one of the most common and pernicious routes by which kids initiate on combustible cigarettes. The menthol serves to mask some of the unattractive features of smoking that might otherwise discourage a child from smoking. Moreover, I believe that menthol products disproportionately and adversely affect underserved communities,” wrote FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

Still, the FDA’s proposal — which faces months of public comment and rule-making — was quickly shot down by Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, both of whom voted for Gottlieb. Big Tobacco is also prepared to fight the potential ban, a fight that promises to be contentious as previous unsuccessful attempts were earlier in the decade.

Burr: focus on drugs

“This is not the first time the FDA has tried to ban menthol, but these efforts have been unsuccessful in the past. It is troubling, however, that an Administration that pledges to put America first is targeting legal, American-made products instead of focusing its attention on states that flout federal drug laws,” Burr said in a statement. “If the United States continues down this path, we will be following in Canada’s footsteps, banning menthol but legalizing recreational drug use. I hope the Administration will choose a better way to protect our children.”

Menthol cigarettes were banned by Canada’s federal government in 2017, though several provinces had previously banned them. In October, Canada legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Ten U.S. states have legalized recreational use of the drug, though neither North Carolina nor any bordering state has legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, according to Governing.com.

North Carolina produced nearly twice as much tobacco as any other state in 2017, and North Carolina and Kentucky account for more than 70 percent of tobacco production in the U.S., according to a 2016 report by the Department of Agriculture.

“Tobacco farming is a substantial part of North Carolina’s economy,” Burr wrote to The Charlotte Observer in 2017. “Fighting to support and protect the interests of the North Carolina families who are making a living through tobacco farming is no different than supporting the interests of North Carolina’s world-class health care and research institutions.”

Burr tried to stop and then voted against a substantial 2009 bill that banned most flavored cigarettes, but not menthol, arguing the FDA could not handle additional duties, according to a 2009 Washington Post article. Then-Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina was the only Democrat among the 17 “no” votes on the legislation.

Burr has been engaged in the FDA regulation process throughout his career in the Senate, calling on the organization to keep up with the pace of medical innovation and focus on what he says is its job, rather than banning products.

‘Burden on the black community’

Tobacco use, according to the CDC, is one of the major contributors to the top four leading causes of death among African-Americans: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. The group, citing a 2013 survey, found menthol cigarettes are preferred by 88.5 percent of black smokers ages 12 and older.

“Menthols are a particular burden on the black community, and that’s not an accident,” Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative, said in a phone interview. “The tobacco industry specifically targeted menthols to African-Americans for many, many years. It’s not an accident that they smoke menthols.”

St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh is one of 33 historically black colleges and universities nationally to receive grants in 2015 to increase smoking-cessation efforts. St. Augustine’s is now a tobacco- and smoke-free campus, said Derrick Sauls, chair of the school’s public health and exercise science department. Sauls said the battle over menthol might be short-lived, as a larger fight over marijuana looms.

“It’s only a matter of time before that battle goes away because hemp is coming,” Sauls said in a phone interview. “Menthol is going to become a side issue in the future.”

The NAACP is backing the proposed menthol ban, accusing the tobacco industry of targeting African-Americans as the number of smokers in the country declines. In 2016, the organization adopted a resolution supporting restrictions on sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.

“For decades, data have shown that the tobacco industry has successfully and intentionally marketed mentholated cigarettes to African Americans and particularly African American women as “replacement smokers;” that menthol smokers have a harder time quitting smoking; and that tobacco use is a major contributor to heart disease, cancer, and stroke – three leading causes of death among African Americans,” said Marjorie Innocent, the NAACP’s senior director of health programs, in a statement.

Menthol was first added to cigarettes in the 1920s and became widespread in the 1950s, according to the Truth Initiative. Newport is the top selling menthol cigarette brand, according to maker RJ Reynolds, which also produces a menthol version of Camel cigarettes. Newport was created in 1957. Other menthol brands include Kool and Salem, and Marlboro has a menthol variety.

‘Extreme measure’

“I applaud the FDA’s commitment to developing a robust plan to combat underage use of e-vapor products,” Tillis said in a statement. “However, I hope the FDA revisits some of its actions affecting traditional products that have been marketed for decades.”

The tobacco industry gave nearly $2 million to candidates in 2018, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Six North Carolina members of Congress were among the top 16 recipients of tobacco-industry contributions in 2018, including Tillis who was No. 2 at $55,350 — even though he won’t be up for re-election until 2020. In 2016, Burr received $197,825 from the tobacco industry, nearly three times as much as any other candidate. In 2014, Hagan and Tillis, her challenger, received $89,485 and $68,100, respectively, from the tobacco industry.

“We continue to believe that a total ban on menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars would be an extreme measure not supported by the science of the evidence,” Murray Garnick, vice president and general counsel of Altria Group Inc., which makes Marlboro, said in a statement. “We expect that establishing product standards on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will be a multi-year, deliberative process, and we will be fully engaged throughout.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2018 at 8:51 AM.