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Tag: menthol ban

  • DKiss Menthol Flavoring to Exhibit at Intertabac

    DKiss Menthol Flavoring to Exhibit at Intertabac

    Menthol cigarettes and menthol-flavored heated tobacco sticks are strictly banned in multiple countries, including Canada, Ethiopia, the European Union, Moldova, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and specific regions of the United States like California, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.

    In an effort to satisfy menthol consumers, Dekang Biotech Co. Ltd., an established player in the vaping industry, developed the DKiss menthol flavor roll-on. According to the company, the innovative product is set to transform the smoking experience in several ways.

    “It is the easiest way to flavor cigarettes. The DKiss Menthol Flavor Roll-On is distinguished by its innovative roll-on design, ensuring a clean and convenient application process while allowing users to adjust the intensity based on their preferences,” a Dekang representative said.

    The DKiss menthol flavor roll-on can be used with both traditional cigarettes and heated tobacco sticks for heat-not-burn nicotine delivery systems. It caters to a diverse audience by providing a wide variety of flavor options, including flavors specifically designed for individuals sensitive to cigarette odors.

    DKiss menthol roll-on allows smokers to flavor their own cigarettes. In addition to menthol, the Dkiss line offers several other mixed flavors derived from plant extracts, such as loquat and ginseng, blended with menthol. This helps remove the bad breath caused by smoking. It brings the most satisfying fragrance to add a new dimension to your inhalation experience, according to Dekang.

    “This product effectively eradicates cigarette odors and bad breath caused by smoking, serving as a discreet solution for smokers,” the representative said. “Mint enthusiasts will appreciate the refreshing mint flavor variant, which cleverly balances the taste of the cigarette and the unpleasant smell it creates, making it an ideal choice for menthol cigarette lovers.”

    Dekang will showcase its DKiss menthol roll-on brand and its other innovative product lines during the Intertabac industry trade show (booths 5.D14 and 1B.A28), which will be held in Dortmund, Germany, from Sept. 19 – 21, 2024.

  • Biden Asks Judge to Drop Menthol Ban Suit

    Biden Asks Judge to Drop Menthol Ban Suit

    TR Archive

    The Biden administration asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by anti-smoking groups demanding that it end nearly a year of delay and ban menthol cigarettes, which are used disproportionately by Blacks and younger people.

    In a court filing late last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the delay was not unreasonable because it had yet to determine that a ban was “appropriate for the protection of the public health.”

    The FDA also said the plaintiffs had no direct stake in a ban, having alleged at most “a setback to their abstract social interests,” and therefore had no standing to sue,” according to Reuters.

    It cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 13 rejection of a bid by anti-abortion groups and doctors to restrict access to a widely used abortion pill.

    The lawsuit was filed on April 2 in the Oakland, California federal court by the American Medical Association, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, Action on Smoking and Health and the National Medical Association.

    Last month, the FDA authorized four menthol NJOY products through the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) pathway.

    The FDA issued marketing granted orders to NJOY, an Altria subsidiary, for two pods for its Ace closed e-cigarette device, which was authorized in April of 2022, and two disposable e-cigarettes—NJOY DAILY Menthol 4.5%, and NJOY DAILY EXTRA Menthol 2.4%.

  • Chilling Effects

    Chilling Effects

    Image: Jolita Marcinkene

    Is a menthol ban appropriate for the protection of public health? Hopes, concerns and a reality check

    By Cheryl K. Olson

    Is a U.S. menthol ban finally coming? The 2009 Tobacco Control Act exempted menthol cigarettes from its blanket ban on candy and fruit flavors. Menthol was left out, according to CNN, due to “serious lobbying from the industry.”

    As the Washington Post reported, plans to finalize the rule have been made—and postponed—multiple times by the Biden administration. The announcement of a finalized rule was planned for this month.

    The Food and Drug Administration first announced its “proposed product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes” back in April 2022. The stated purpose? To reduce appeal to and experimentation by youth that will lead to regular smoking addiction and to reduce disease and death among adults via fewer cigarettes smoked and more quitting. A ban is also “expected to reduce tobacco-related health disparities.” The ban would target making and selling not individual possession or use.

    Concerns that banning menthol could exacerbate waning enthusiasm for Biden among Black voters appears to be one factor behind the delay. (Hoping to capitalize on this, one conservative group is reportedly testing menthol-focused ads on Black South Carolina primary election voters.) Four in five Black adults who smoke report choosing menthols. 

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a venerable advocacy organization for Black Americans, supports a federal menthol ban. In a Jan. 12 press release, its senior vice president of global policy called out “the relentless predatory marketing of menthol-flavored cigarettes, [which] has inflicted devastating consequences on Black communities.” This included ads in Black-oriented media, such as Ebony magazine, and sponsored events, such as the Kool Jazz Festival.

    Other organizations, such as Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, have argued against singling out menthol for a ban. Sharpton has expressed concern that a menthol focus could increase over-policing of Black communities, pointing to the New York City police killing of Eric Garner, who was suspected of selling “loosie” untaxed cigarettes.

    “The illicit market is always open and doesn’t check IDs.”

    Why Menthol?

    In the U.S., menthol has been added to cigarettes for at least 100 years, at times promoted as throat-soothing for coughs and colds. National government surveys find that, as smoking rates overall trend down, the proportion of menthols smoked has crept up.

    These surveys show that menthol smoking is disproportionately higher among subgroups of people regulators consider disadvantaged or vulnerable. This includes Black and Hispanic adults who smoke, young adults, women and persons reporting serious psychological distress.

    Concern that menthol may be a drag on cessation rates has boosted support for a ban. Because it reduces irritation, menthol may make it easier to start smoking. It’s used more often by people who smoke intermittently or experimentally. Researchers have called for more studies to parse and prove a causal role for menthol in increasing smoking and deterring quitting.

    In this century, smoking rates have been stagnant among African-American adults who smoke. A 2020 analysis of U.S. studies did not find an overall effect of menthol on smoking cessation but did find that among African-Americans who smoked, use of menthol was linked to 12 percent lower odds of quitting. 

    Can bans help people quit smoking? To some degree, yes. Pooled results from a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of English-language menthol ban studies found that 24 percent of those who smoked menthols had quit cigarettes a year or two later. But results varied widely; bans took place under a variety of conditions, and most of the studies included had small or unrepresentative samples.

    For example, a survey of San Francisco’s ban of menthol and other flavors in all tobacco products found decreased flavored e-cigarette and cigar use and a slight uptick in smoking. The study used a small convenience sample of 247 young adults. Even rigorous economic studies of bans admit to trouble tracking illicit and cross-border sales and other workarounds.

    Regulators are aware of the need for better research. The FDA recently awarded a $3.6 million grant to researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina to study whether banning menthol in cigarettes (and e-cigarettes) would increase quitting or switching. Meanwhile, Rutgers University received two grants totaling $7 million via the National Institutes of Health to study anticipated “disinformation” from industry, aimed at Black and Hispanic young adults, that could “undermine the impact of a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.”

    What Could Go Wrong?

    The FDA expects minimal illegal trade in event of a ban. Richard Marianos disagrees. He is a retired assistant director at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a faculty member at Georgetown University. Marianos says banning products creates crime. 

    Illicit sales of individual cigarettes and contraband packs are already problematic, in part because taxes have driven up costs. Marianos showed me photos of several men, one with a gun in his waistband, at an illegal sales spot outside of a Washington, D.C., Metro station.

    “People come off the train, buy four loosies from the spot, then ration them out during the day,” he says. “You can get your marijuana, your cocaine and your Newports.”

    The flavor ban in California has sparked increased robberies of convenience stores across the border in Arizona, according to Marianos. “A pack of menthol cigarettes that they can steal and sell for $2 apiece at the spot derives a greater profit than a cash register robbery,” he says. “I have videos of crews hitting a Circle K or Wawa, jumping over the counter, sticking up the clerk and—like Santa—putting the cigarettes into a gigantic tarp and taking off.”

    A Canadian study of intended and unintended effects of their menthol ban found that many people purchased menthols on First Nations reserves, where the ban did not apply. Marianos expects that Native American reservations in the U.S. would similarly help meet demand.

    The practical path forward for advocates of an enforceable menthol cigarette ban is to actively promote harm reduction.

    Menthol Workarounds

    The assumption by many tobacco control advocates that Big Tobacco will sabotage menthol bans overlooks the likely ingenuity of individuals. Marianos described one case he ran across: “A guy was going on eBay and buying menthol crystals, spraying regular cigarettes in his basement and then selling them on the corner as menthols.”

    Noting that products to alter cigarette characteristics are illegal under the proposed rule, “FDA does not anticipate a substantial number of individuals would utilize such products.”

    Researchers have documented sales of flavor cards and menthol drops in Canada and various flavor accessories in the European Union to circumvent their menthol bans—predictably leading to calls to ban those items too. 

     “The illicit market is always open and doesn’t check IDs,” notes Nicholas “Grimm” Green, a YouTuber and tobacco harm reduction advocate. “As long as $10 ‘menthol injectors’ exist on Amazon, the idea of a menthol ban is silly.”

    That’s not to say that companies won’t do their part to circumvent a menthol ban. “Tobacco companies have already introduced nonmenthol-menthol cigarettes into the market in California,” says Green. Further, enforcement is lax. “Menthol disposable vapes are available at almost every gas station and head shop in the state,” he adds.

    The California ban, approved by voter referendum, went into effect in December 2022. It covers not just menthol cigarettes but nearly all flavored nicotine products. Researchers have found synthetic cooling agents that give menthol-like effects in cigarettes sold in that state. A journalist from STAT News found widespread sales of flavored products, even in cities that had their own longstanding flavor bans.

    Legal Hurdles

    If the menthol rule comes to pass, store shelves aren’t immediately cleared. Flavor bans enacted by states can take effect within months. Because the proposed federal ban comes out of the FDA’s complex rule-making process, it could take years.

    “If they publish that rule on a Monday, the next day, you’ll see a legal challenge filed to prevent it from ever going into effect,” says Jeffrey Weiss, partner at Flagstaff Ventures and formerly chief engagement officer and general counsel at Njoy. 

    He predicts a dead-end fate for the menthol ban, similar to that of the final rule requiring graphic health warnings on cigarette packs. Why?

    U.S. law requires that adoption of tobacco product standards must be appropriate for the protection of public health. In supplementary information to the proposed menthol rule, the FDA cites research, including population models and expert opinions, on what is expected to happen after a menthol ban.

    “They model that a certain percentage will switch to tobacco cigarettes, a percentage will buy black market menthol cigarettes, a percentage will quit and a percentage will switch to an e-cigarette, primarily menthol,” Weiss says. “But that model doesn’t actually exist—in the sense that there are no authorized menthol e-cigarettes for smokers to switch to.”

    Post-ban, more menthol users are expected to switch to menthol e-cigarettes than to quit using tobacco. In sum, much of the health benefit from banning menthol is supposed to come via unauthorized product use. Products that are themselves banned in a growing number of states and localities.

    Regulators are not unaware of this conundrum. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has publicly expressed concern about the difficulties that people dependent on menthol cigarettes will face if the products are taken away. For example, he remarked at a 2023 Congressional budget hearing, “[W]here do they [menthol users] go to get help, coming off of a terrible addiction? Our healthcare systems are not set up to deal with that right now.”

    What about evidence for a menthol ban preventing harm to youth? The respected nationally representative Monitoring the Future study found that past-month menthol and nonmenthol cigarette use by non-Hispanic black teens is now less than 1 percent. It’s fallen so low in recent years that “prevalence levels approach a floor effect.” Moreover, today’s Black adolescents use menthol cigarettes at lower levels than non-Black youth.  

    A Better Way?

    Given the high risk of unintended effects and the limited certainty of benefits, is a menthol ban our best plan? “It would be best if the government would think first in the direction of ‘how can we affirmatively help people make positive change?’” Weiss says. “Because prohibitions are hard and costly to enforce.”

    The lack of authorized reduced-harm menthol or mint products is just part of the problem. Another is the FDA’s limited and ambivalent reduced-risk communications.

    Weiss points to the FDA’s routine tweeting of its one-page list of 23 authorized e-cigarette products. At the bottom of the page is a disclaimer: Being authorized “does not mean that these products are safe nor are they ‘FDA approved.’ All tobacco products are harmful.”

    “If you want a current menthol smoker who can’t completely quit to switch to a regulated reduced-harm product—how are they going to do that when you’re telling them that none of these products are safe?” says Weiss. “If it’s an unsafe product, why is that a better choice for me” than a tobacco-flavored cigarette or an illicit menthol one? 

    Active promotion of reduced-harm menthol alternatives seems a sensible way to limit ban backfires. A rigorous laboratory study of adults who smoked menthol cigarettes daily found that menthol-flavored e-cigarettes outshone tobacco-flavored ones in reducing cigarette cravings—including urges to smoke for pleasure. According to the authors (affiliated with prominent universities), this is a known strong predictor of successful smoking cessation.

    The practical path forward for advocates of an enforceable menthol cigarette ban is to actively promote harm reduction. “Encourage FDA to start authorizing menthol e-cigarettes, among other things, so that these smokers would have something to switch to,” says Weiss. “And to make it more likely that a menthol ban could withstand a legal challenge.”

    Cheryl K. Olson is a California-based public health researcher who specializes in behavioral health issues and consults on tobacco product behaviors via McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors. She spent 15 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.
  • Lung Association Urges Menthol Ban

    Lung Association Urges Menthol Ban

    Image: sosiukin

    The American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2024 Report highlights the impacts of tobacco use and urges the White House to finalize rules on the impending menthol ban.

    The 22nd annual State of Tobacco Control report evaluates state and federal efforts to eliminate tobacco use and save lives with proven-effective tobacco control laws and policies. This year’s report highlights the public health perils of menthol tobacco use and the failure of the White House to finalize the rules to end menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in 2023, according to an American Lung Association press release.

    “It is unacceptable that after decades of research and proven tobacco control efforts, tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. Tobacco use is responsible for 480,000 deaths each year, including 45,000 Black individuals,” said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, in a statement.

    “Right now, President Biden can take action and save lives if he finalizes the rules to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Menthol cigarettes make it both easier to start and harder to quit by reducing the harshness of the smoke and cooling the throat. Once these rules are final, fewer people will start smoking, millions will begin their journey to quit, and lives will be saved.”

    The federal section of the report highlights the failure of the Biden White House to finalize rules to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in December 2023, the continued delay of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to complete its review of premarket tobacco product applications and the beginning of meaningful enforcement against illegal e-cigarette products.

    In the State of Tobacco Control report, the American Lung Association identified four key actions for the Biden administration and Congress to take in 2024 that will help ultimately eliminate the death and disease caused by tobacco use: The White House must finalize the rules to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars; the FDA must finalize premarket review and work with other federal agencies to remove all illegal e-cigarettes and other flavored products from the marketplace; Congress must maintain or increase current funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health; and Congress must pass H.R. 4775, the Helping Tobacco Users Quit Act, bipartisan legislation giving more people access to the resources they need to quit tobacco.

    The 2024 State of Tobacco Control report grades the federal government in five areas: federal regulation of tobacco products—grade C; federal coverage of quit smoking treatments—grade D; level of federal tobacco taxes—grade F; federal mass media campaigns to prevent and reduce tobacco use—grade A; and federal minimum age of sale for tobacco products to 21—incomplete (the FDA is overdue in finalizing the Tobacco 21 regulations as required by statute, which is why it earns an “incomplete”).

    The 2024 State of Tobacco Control report grades states and the District of Columbia in five areas that have been proven to prevent and reduce tobacco use and save lives: strength of smoke-free workplace laws—16 states and Washington, D.C., earned “A” grades; ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products—45 states earned “F” grades; funding for state tobacco prevention programs—41 states and Washington, D.C., earned “F” grades; level of state tobacco taxes—31 states earned “F” grades; and coverage and access to services to quit tobacco—20 states and Washington, D.C., earned “A” or “B” grades.

  • Attorneys General Urge Menthol Ban

    Attorneys General Urge Menthol Ban

    Credit: Jet City Image

    A coalition of 21 state attorneys general submitted a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget urging the Biden administration to complete its review and swiftly implement proposed bans on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

    “The proposed FDA rules, which are supported by ample evidence, have been long overdue,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a press release. “In today’s letter, the coalition specifically highlights calls for action by civil rights and public health groups to remove menthol tobacco products from the marketplace to protect public health and address the systemic and disproportionate impact of these products on minority communities and other vulnerable populations, including young people.”

    Bonta said tobacco companies have intentionally targeted specific communities across the nation, particularly communities of color, which has contributed to significant health disparities and inequities.

    “The time to act is now,” said Bonta. “I urge the Biden Administration to finally halt the sale of these flavored tobacco products, which will lay the groundwork to reverse decades of disparities in tobacco use and save lives.” 

    In the letter, the multistate coalition urges the Biden Administration to finalize its review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rules without delay.

    “As state and territorial chief legal officers, the attorneys general address unfounded claims that the proposed menthol ban will increase illicit trade or criminalize the individual purchase, possession, or use of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars,” the letter states. “The coalition argues that the FDA’s proposed rules are critical steps for advancing health equity and protecting public health. Moreover, banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will bring the country closer to achieving the Cancer Moonshot, President Biden’s historic push “to end cancer as we know it.”

    Bonta co-leads the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Mariana Islands, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and District of Columbia.

    A copy of the letter can be found here.

  • FDA Prevails in Logic Challenge

    FDA Prevails in Logic Challenge

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has defeated Logic Technology Development after the e-cigarette manufacturer asked the courts to block the regulatory agency’s market ban on Logic’s menthol-flavored e-cigarette products, according to media reports.

    Logic filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, alleging the FDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it denied Logic’s premarket tobacco product application to market its menthol-flavored vaping products. The court denied that petition Thursday after concluding the FDA “based decisions on scientific judgments.”

    Logic alleged it was arbitrary and capricious for the FDA to apply the same regulatory framework to menthol that it used to remove fruit- and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes from commerce. The Third Circuit Court entered a stay on the FDA’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) in December 2022. The MDOs were the FDA’s first-ever MDOs directed at menthol e-cigarette products.

  • Coalition Campaigns Against Menthol Ban

    Coalition Campaigns Against Menthol Ban

    Image: National Coalition of Justice Practitioners

    The National Coalition of Justice Practitioners, a group of Black and Hispanic law enforcement executives and experts, hosted the “When Good People Write Bad Policy” National Press Club panel event to educate people about the racial and criminal implications of a menthol ban, according to a PR Newswire release. The panel met before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s anticipated menthol ban announcement.

    “There are many groups who still do not understand the unintended consequences of this proposed ban,” said Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and panel moderator. “For leaders in Washington to consider this ban without consulting Black and Brown officers is disastrous. Let’s sit down with the proponents and first conduct a Racial Impact Study. Targeting in the past doesn’t justify targeting now. We are against racial targeting and profiling. All of it.”

    Panelists Jiles Ship, Neill Franklin, Elliot Boyce, Corey Pegues, Sonia Pruitt, David Daniels III, John I. Dixon and Ron Hampton asked that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris pull back on this menthol ban until further studies, like a Racial Impact Study, are done and more experts are heard.

    The Aug. 10 panel event urged lawmakers to study the effects of a menthol ban by launching a Racial Impact Study that gathers input from law enforcement, health experts and Black and Latino communities.

    The law enforcement experts listed these unintended consequences: Anything you ban becomes illegal, and it is a policing issue; enforcement of the menthol ban will be in more urban and Latino communities and used as a tool in racial profiling, stop-and-frisks and arrests; and the police do not need another reason for a stop-and-frisk that leads to life-threatening casualties in the Black community.

    Former Law Enforcement Action Partnership Executive Director Franklin stated, “Illicit markets breed violence. This menthol ban will flood the streets, especially Black and Latino communities, with unregulated products, and if you think the products are unhealthy now, wait until the unregulated products are pushed into our communities. You don’t want to see substances like fentanyl added to a street cigarette.”

    Overall, adult and youth smoking rates in the U.S. are at record lows, according to the coalition. Since over 80 percent of African Americans and 48 percent of Latinos who choose to smoke prefer menthol cigarettes, a proposed FDA ban is racially discriminatory since cigarettes preferred by white smokers will not be banned, they argue. There is no scientific basis to regulate menthol and nonmenthol cigarettes differently. Health concerns are more effectively managed through education, treatment and counseling, not by police, they state.

  • FDA Urged to Reconsider Menthol Ban

    FDA Urged to Reconsider Menthol Ban

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Twenty U.S. representatives are urging the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, reports CSP. The ban would exacerbate existing illicit trade of tobacco products, according to a letter sent to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.

    A final rule is set to be published in August but would not go into effect until at least next year.

    “When Congress enacted the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, the intent was for the FDA to use regulation to ensure proper oversight of the tobacco industry. When prohibition-based actions result in large illicit markets, it causes more risk for Americans, more crime, more burden on law enforcement and more opportunities for policy and community conflict,” the letter said. “We urge FDA to take illicit markets seriously. The FDA can do this by using regulation to safely meet adult consumer demand while also establishing controls on how those products are marketed to protect kids. We urge you to reconsider FDA’s proposed rules on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars and refrain from any further prohibition-based actions that threaten to expand illicit markets.”

    The proposed ban would result in about one-third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. becoming illegal, according to the letter, highlighting concern that the ban would lead to a similar illicit market to vapor products.

    “With this prohibition-based approach, we now see thriving illicit e-vapor markets all over the U.S.,” the letter stated, pointing to states that have enacted flavor bans. “These markets include illegal products with some of the highest incidence of underage use; products made in Chinese manufacturing facilities with no FDA oversight; products being illegally smuggled over U.S. borders and through U.S. ports; products being trafficked in violation of state and local criminal laws; and products being sold without age verification.”

    The letter was signed by U.S. Representatives John Rutherford, Don Bacon, David Valadao, Ben Cline, C. Scott Franklin, Troy Nehls, Richard Hudson, John Rose, Jerry Carl, Eric “Rick” Crawford, Daniel Meuser, Andrew Garbarino, Debbie Lesko, Byron Donalds, Mike Ezell, David Rouzer, Anthony D’Esposito, Kat Cammack, Diana Harshbarger and Jeff Duncan.

  • FDA Denies Marketing Applications for Vuse Menthol

    FDA Denies Marketing Applications for Vuse Menthol

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) for two menthol e-cigarette products currently marketed by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company under the Vuse Solo brand.

    Reynolds is expected to challenge the order.

    The currently marketed products include the Vuse Replacement Cartridge Menthol 4.8% G1 and the Vuse Replacement Cartridge Menthol 4.8% G2, according to a statement. The company may resubmit applications or submit new applications to address the deficiencies for the products that are subject to these MDOs. 

    The FDA evaluates premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) based on a public health standard that considers the risks and benefits of the product on the population as a whole.

    After reviewing the company’s PMTAs, the FDA determined that the applications lacked sufficient evidence to demonstrate that permitting the marketing of the products would be appropriate for the protection of the public health, which is the applicable standard legally required by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

    Specifically, the evidence submitted by the applicant did not demonstrate that its menthol-flavored e-cigarettes provide an added benefit for adult smokers relative to tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.

    In October last year, the FDA issued MDOs for several menthol-flavored vaping products marketed by Logic Technology Development. It was the first time the FDA issued MDOs for menthol products after receiving a scientific review.

    A few days after the order was issued, Logic obtained a court order from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit that temporarily stayed the order.

    The case continues.

  • Study: Menthol Ban Increased Smoking Among Black Women

    Study: Menthol Ban Increased Smoking Among Black Women

    Image: deagreez | Adobe Stock

    Massachusetts’ menthol cigarette ban led to a net increase in smoking among Black adults, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, reports the Reason Foundation.

    Samuel Asare, principal scientist in tobacco control research at the American Cancer Society, suggested that banning menthol cigarettes is counterproductive to public health goals and called for better health equity.

    “As the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] plans to eliminate menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes, interventions should address possible increases in cigarette smoking among Black females,” the research letter states.

    The research showed that the menthol ban led to an 8.1 percent relative decrease in smoking among adults aged 25 and older, with the prevalence of current cigarette use dropping from 13 percent in 2019 to 12 percent in 2021. Part of this decrease was due to a 56.8 percent relative decrease in smoking among Black men. However, with a 58.6 percent relative increase in smoking among Black women and an equal prevalence of smoking among both genders in 2019, the menthol cigarette ban led to a net increase in smoking among Black adults in Massachusetts.