FDA Proposes Eliminating Menthol Cigarettes and All Flavored Cigars!

On April 28^th, 2022 the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced two proposed rules that would prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes as well as all flavored cigars! 

If finalized, BIG Tobacco would no longer be able to market and sell these dangerous, easy to use products that have been targeting and hooking communities of color and youth for generations. These products have been shown to increase the number of youth and adults who become regular smokers and boost tobacco use and nicotine addiction putting users on a path to serious illness and death. The science is clear, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars have a negative effect on public health, especially in underserved communities and should not be allowed to remain on the market.

In 2009, thanks in large part to years of advocacy from YTC advocates like you, then President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. We celebrated this monumental achievement at the time and are doing so again. Why the history lesson? It’s important to know how we got here, the role YTC advocates can play in the process and that life-changing policies like this sometimes take longer than we’d want. The incredible voice of YTC advocates 13 years ago has led us to this point. A point where with a little more effort, we can finally remove menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars from the market. The Tobacco Control Act, among other things removed all flavored cigarettes (except for menthol) from the market and equally as important, gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products. It is with this authority that the FDA has proposed to remove menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars from the market. It’s taken longer than we would have liked, but thanks to your continued efforts, the FDA has now proposed to end the sale of these dangerous products.

While every tobacco control advocate is celebrating, we need to be clear here…our work is not even close to done and we are going to need every member of YTC (and your families and friends 😊) to stand up to BIG Tobacco and support these critically important rules. As mentioned above, these are proposed rules and do not currently carry the force of law. Menthol cigarettes and flavored cigar products will not be removed overnight and we will need your voices now more than ever if we want the FDA to follow-through on their pledge to tell BIG Tobacco enough is enough.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be focusing YTC efforts on supporting and protecting the FDA’s proposed rules from BIG Tobacco’s efforts to delay, weaken or squash the rules altogether. We will offer YTC advocates several ways to take action to support these incredibly important rules. You can take action in support of removing menthol cigarettes from the market by clicking this link. You can also text “CURE” to 46839 to sign up for our texting program and be the first to know when there is an important action to help build a world of longer, healthier lives and please be sure to monitor your inboxes.

We are so close to achieving our goal and with your help, our decades of work could pay off in a big way!