after considering doing so off
and on for more than a decade,
the fda is forging ahead with
her proposal the band menthol
flavored cigarettes.
If finalized this summer, the
move is expected to reduce
has been met with praise and
criticism.
Stephanie sy has our look.
Reporter: Mental accounts for
more than a third of all
cigarettes sold in the U.S. And
the cooling minty flavor is a
most popular among certain
smokers.
Nearly 85% of black smokers use
menthol.
More than half of all kids who
smoke use menthol cigarettes.
The fda said the band could
prevent up to 650 thousand
smoking deaths over 40 years.
Carol Mcgruder is a cochair of
the African-American tobacco
control leadership council and
advocacy group.
Carol Mcgruder, thank you for
joining us.
Banding menthol cigarettes has
been discussed for years under
different presidential
administrations.
How big of a deal is it that the
fda is finally making this move?
>> This is a monumental day in
public health.
The day of the century.
The ruling is that important.
We want to make sure that people
know it is not done.
This is the beginning of the
process.
We need to participate in it and
understand.
The tobacco industry could also
have lawsuits to block it.
This is the beginning of the end
and not the end but it is a
monumental day and the fda is
finally doing what they were
mandated to do in 2009 when the
tobacco control act was passed
and that was to do something
about menthol.
It has taken a lot of push.
A lawsuit on our part with our
co-plaintiffs including the
American medical association to
get them to move.
They finally have and we are
very grateful.
Reporter: The fda statement out
today explained the effects of
menthol cigarettes and one fact
that I think a lot of people may
not know is that the flavor
enhances the addictive effects
of nicotine.
We also know they are the most
preferred cigarettes among lack
smokers which your group
specifically focuses on.
Talk about some of the ways in
which tobacco companies have
pushed the cigarettes on black
communities.
>> Through the tobacco
industry's own documents that
were released, there has been
research papers that have come
out and one is called
institutional racism, the other
is smoking with the enemy.
It documents how the tobacco
industry has preyed upon
African-Americans, how they had
special urban programs for black
people.
They distributed free cigarettes
in our community across the
country to children as young as
nine years old.
One of those children was Dave
Chappelle here he was given free
cigarettes in Washington, D.C.
And the metro station and he
talks about how he went home and
decided he was going to learn
how to smoke.
The feeding of these deadly and
addictive products to our
community has been going on for
decades.
While we have been fighting for
civil rights, the tobacco
industry has been in the
background addicting us, each
generation after generation in
the last 20 years, there has
been a million black people that
have died from tobacco induced
diseases.
My mother died from breast
cancer.
We know what caused these
millions of deaths.
What caused them was the tobacco
industry.
Reporter: And yet there are
critics of the band.
They are worried it will have
unintended consequences
specifically on the black
community.
Family members of victims of
excessive police force have
signed a joint letter to the
Biden administration that says
-- our fear is that banding the
manufacturing and selling of
menthol cigarettes will not stop
their production and purchase
but will instead open the
floodgates for smoke -- for
smuggling.
That does not match our
experiences with other cigarette
policies.
What is your response to those
concerns?
>> My response is that we have a
problem in our country with
racism and with the policing of
black bodies.
And for the tobacco industry, I
know that rev. Al Sharpton and
their group received money from
Reynolds American which is
Newport cigarettes.
And he has been one of the
people traveling around the
country with this dialogue.
I rest back reverend Al, he has
done tremendous work in our
community but on this issue, it
is the tobacco industry that is
behind edge.
It is a group that is killed one
million black people these last
20 years.
There are other national
organizations in support of
taking these products off the
market.
No one loves the black smoker
than the African-American
tobacco controlled council.
This is not the end, to pass
legislation.
It is the beginning.
Public health is on board.
This is not about criminalizing
black smokers but about helping
them and stopping another
generation of black children
from being addicted to these
products.
Our neighborhoods do not have to
be this way.
This is a new day.
Reporter: Carol Mcgruder with
the African-American tobacco
controlled leadership council,
thank you for joining the
"Newshour."
>> Thank you so much.