are they going to quit making menthol cigarettes The Proposed Ban on Is Dividing Racial Justice Advocates After years, the FDA is

Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in a statement

Researchers estimate that a regulation banning menthol cigarettes would save about 654,000 lives over the next 40 years, especially those of Black smokers, who are disproportionately more likely to smoke menthols

Under these assumptions, more than half of the market would remain taxed, but slightly more than 40 percent of consumption would move into other legal tobacco or nicotine use (some taxed at lower rates and some not taxed at all) or illicit tobacco use

It was Yerger's group, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, as well as the group Action on Smoking and Health, that sued the FDA when the agency failed to respond to a 2013 citizen petition urging for a ban on menthol cigarettes

Reduction, not prohibition Shares of Altria Group Inc, Imperial Brands Plc and British America Tobacco Plc (BAT) were mixed in afternoon trading

The Food and Drug Administration has contemplated banning menthol cigarettes since as early as 2013, but concerns around potential heavier policing on menthol smokers, particularly Black smokers, and the opportunity for a new illicit menthol market have so far foiled the proposal