From: SMOKEFREE@compuserve.com
Date: Wed, 07/02/08
Black Lawmakers Seek Restrictions on Menthol Cigarettes
By Stephanie Saul
New York Times
July 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/business/01menthol.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&
oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for changes to a House
tobacco-regulation bill, demanding that the legislation place restrictions
on menthol cigarettes, the type heavily favored by African-American
smokers.
The 43-member caucus is taking aim at a provision in the bill that would
ban candy-, fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes but that specifically
exempts menthol. In recent weeks the exemption has become the focus of
controversy because menthol brands are heavily used by black smokers, who
develop a large share of smoking-related cancers and other health risks.
Donna M. Christensen, the Congressional delegate from the United States
Virgin Islands who heads the black caucus’s health task force, said the
caucus was working with Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California
Democrat who is House bill’s sponsor, to address concerns about menthol..
"We are very aware and gravely concerned about the disproportionate
incidence of lung cancer in the African-American community and, along with
so many minority health experts, have long been concerned about the role
menthol may play," Ms. Christensen said in an e-mail response to a
reporter’s query.
Ms. Christensen did not disclose the exact wording of any proposed changes
to the legislation. But she said the group was working to strengthen the
bill’s language on research and reporting about menthol and to give the
Food and Drug Administration explicit authority to ban menthol.
On the other side of the debate, Lorillard, the cigarette company that
would stand to lose the most from a ban on menthol, is mounting a
counteroffensive. In e-mail messages sent on June 22 to smokers of its
leading menthol brand, Newport, the company urged them to call their
Congressional representatives.
"Urgent! Urgent!," the message said. "Congress wants to make it illegal to
smoke Newports and other menthol cigarettes. Call your member of Congress
now and tell them to oppose any amendment to ban menthol cigarettes."
A spokesman for Lorillard, Michael W. Robinson, said, "We think it’s
important that consumers know what’s going in Washington and have an
opportunity to make their voices heard."
The legislation has passed crucial committees in both the House and the
Senate, and supporters are hoping for floor votes this year. Mr. Waxman has
predicted a House vote after members return from the July 4 recess.
With or without a menthol exemption, enactment of the bill is not a
certainty.
Opponents of the proposal are hoping that opposition from the White House,
as well as tobacco state senators, along with a series of delays in moving
the bill to the House and Senate floors and an abbreviated election-year
schedule, might mean the bill would not be adopted this year.
Menthol is a racially charged additive, in part because of the tobacco
industry’s heavy marketing of mentholated cigarettes to African-Americans
since the 1950s. The flavor helps to mask the harsh taste of cigarettes and
may make it easier to start smoking,
Menthol brands account for 28 percent of the $70 billion American cigarette
market. While only 25 percent of white smokers choose menthol cigarettes,
an estimated 75 percent of African-American smokers do.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health
officials have raised concerns about the possibility that menthol
cigarettes might increase tobacco addiction and possibly cancer rates among
black smokers.
There is also evidence that some menthol brands, including Newport, contain
among the highest level of nicotine of leading cigarettes. Some experts
believe that higher nicotine levels increase the addictiveness of
cigarettes.
Some lawmakers have said the decision to exempt menthol from the bill’s
flavorings ban was intended to win support for the legislation from Philip
Morris, the country’s dominant tobacco company, whose Marlboro Menthol is
the second-leading menthol brand.
Some smoking opponents have said they consider the menthol exemption as a
necessary compromise to get the legislation passed. They have said that the
bill as currently drafted would give the F.D.A. the authority to limit or
eliminate additives, including menthol, if proved to be harmful.
The American Medical Association, in its meeting in Chicago in June, voted
to ask its board to consider the question of whether menthol should be
banned. The decision effectively rebuffed members who had wanted the group
to speak out this year against the bill’s menthol exemption. Leaders of the
organization cited the possibility that removing the menthol exemption
might disrupt the compromise that has engendered broad support for the bill
on Capitol Hill.
Some supporters of the bill’s current language on menthol have argued that,
because menthol is widely used by many smokers, the effects of banning it
outright are hard to predict. Among possibilities they have suggested is
that menthol smokers would turn to an illicit cigarette market to obtain
menthol cigarettes.
In a letter to several lawmakers on June 11, a coalition of health groups,
including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart
Association and the American Lung Association, reiterated their support for
the bill without changes to the menthol provisions.
"The impact of modifying or prohibiting such a large portion of the current
cigarette market is unclear," said the letter, sent to Mr. Waxman as well
as John D. Dingell of Michigan and Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, House
Democrats who head the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its health
subcommittee.
The Congressional Black Caucus took up the menthol issue in June after Dr..
Louis W. Sullivan, an African-American who was the secretary of health
under President George H. W. Bush, met with members of Congress and their
staffs to voice concerns about the bill’s treatment of menthol.
Dr. Sullivan, president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine in
Atlanta, was one of nearly a dozen former federal health officials who had
signed a letter expressing concern about the bill’s treatment of menthol.
A black antismoking organization, the National African American Tobacco
Prevention Network, withdrew its support for the bill in late May, citing
the menthol exemption.
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