If Camel Mandarin Mints are your brand of choice, then you may not have long to satisfy your fix. But if Newport Menthols are your favorites, you’re OK. For now.
In October, following in the steps of Congress, the New York City Council banned flavored cigarettes from all stores. The law takes effect on Feb. 15, 2010.
But there’s one big exception to both the city and federal bans: menthol-flavored cigarettes. In Harlem, a neighborhood with a large African-American population where about 80 percent of smokers buy menthol, that’s a big loophole.
Menthol Still Remains
The city bill followed a federal law enacted on Sept. 22, which will be enforced by the Food and Drug Administration. The New York City Health Department stated that “tobacco products with flavors like mint chocolate, banana and peach are clearly designed to appeal to children and get them on the road to becoming smokers.”
The decision was welcomed by Albert Rosiaro, 55, who installs monitors on airplanes. He has been smoking since the age of 12 but doesn’t want children to follow in his footsteps. “Flavors like chocolate and vanilla or strawberry, like ice cream, it isn’t a good idea,” he said. “We got to get kids off cigarettes … It’s an addiction that’s sneaky, just sneaky.”
In Harlem, though, menthol is particularly popular. “Everybody in Harlem smokes menthol,” Rosiaro said. “It’s ridiculous, you can buy them at $9 a pack.”
That’s why William Robinson, the executive director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, says that making an exception for menthol is unacceptable. His organization tried to include menthol cigarettes in the bill.
“You can’t exempt candy and fruit flavors and leave out menthol, when that takes up so much of the tobacco industry,” he said. “In a community like Harlem, that is made up of African Americans that smoke menthol at a rate of 80 percent, then that is a discriminatory process. Even if the intent is not discriminatory, then its impact will be.”
Robinson’s organization appealed to the Congressional Black Caucus but failed to get menthol banned with other flavors. “We were told that if we pressed (the menthol ban), it would kill the federal bill,” Robinson said.
In 2008, The New York Times estimated that menthols made up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion U.S. cigarette market. During the congressional debate last year, Lorillard, the third-largest tobacco company in the United States, sent an email to smokers of the popular menthol brand Newport, asking them to call their representatives to save menthol.
Robinson said that he was able to win support from some black caucus members, including Donna Christensen, the Congressional delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands. But he said black representatives from major tobacco-growing regions in the country were a stumbling block.
Instead of a ban on menthol cigarettes, the FDA will create a scientific committee to review the effects of menthol, making recommendations by October 2011.
In a press release, Christensen said, “FDA will have authority to require changes in current and future tobacco product to protect public health, such as the reduction or elimination of harmful ingredients, additives and constituents, including menthol.”
A spokesman for the Congressional Black Caucus denied any involvement with the federal bill, and Congressman Charles Rangel’s office wouldn’t respond to request for comment on the new law.
New York State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, who may challenge Rangel for his seat next year, said “the issue was eliminating flavors like fruity flavors, that was the issue. Menthol is not a fruit.” He added, “Look, there are people who want to eliminate cigarettes period, and I respect that. But don’t couch it under the flavor of this or the flavor of that.”
Robinson says he believes that the menthol ingredient has added to the high number of African Americans dying from lung cancer — a contention supported by a 2005 study from the Harvard School of Public Health that found menthol cigarettes play a role in health disparities between black and white smokers. Lorillard, however, has stated that “the weight of scientific research does not support the conclusion that menthol cigarettes confer any greater health risk above that of non-menthol cigarettes.
The New York City Health Department will await the decision of the FDA committee. Robinson argues that regardless of health risks, menthol attracts young people just as much as candy flavors.
“If you put menthol in gum or toothpaste, what does it do?” he said. “It has a soothing property. We know that it makes it easier for young people to smoke, because if softens the harshness of the smoking experience.”
While Robinson contends that the current bill is discriminatory, others argue the opposite. Audrey Silk, the founder of New York City’s Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, said, “We attest that to ban menthol is racist. They would be picking on this minority’s preference and could be viewed as just one more form on punishment in a long history of discriminatory acts directed toward this minority.”
Many smokers in Harlem oppose a ban on menthol. Joseph Turner, 62, an electronics technician, agreed with Robinson about menthol’s smoothness – “regular cigarettes tend to burn my throat” – but he argued that this is a matter of choice.
“Black people started smoking regular cigarettes, like a Camel or a Pall Mall, and that had a nasty taste,” Turner said. “Then they went to Malboro, and that’s also disgusting, and they then went to Newport, and they can deal with it. It’s a personal preference.”
Diane Buscemi, 58, an unemployed teacher, gave up smoking Tareytons and Marlboros 11 years ago, but she doubts that menthols will be easy for others to quit. “Menthol has been around a long time,” she said. “And while I say ban them all, I don’t think that’s going to happen because then you get into the question of choice.”
As both sides await the scientific committee’s decision, smokers in Harlem can continue to enjoy at least a couple more drags on their Newports.
Comments on this entry are closed.