Menthol Event Recap

On January 18th, advocates, civil rights leaders and medical professionals joined the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council’s “Menthol Funeral” to bury menthol cigarettes for good. In the freezing cold and snow, they joined the voices calling on the White House to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, and to finally end Big Tobacco’s predatory targeting of the Black community.

“If we had acted over a decade ago, more than a quarter million Black lives would have been saved by 2050”, said Eric Batch, Region Vice President of Field Advocacy at the American Heart Association.

The “Menthol Funeral” started at Black Lives Matter Plaza, accompanied by a New Orleans-style jazz band on a march over to the White House. Prominent Black community leaders, health activists, and American Heart Association representatives spoke before a crowd calling for an end to the sale of these addictive and deadly products.

Menthol cigarettes have an outsized impact on the Black community. 45,000 Black Americans die each year due to tobacco, and 80% of Black people who smoke use menthol. Tobacco giants specifically target Black teens and young adults in advertising campaigns. Menthol subdues the harshness in the mouth and throat that comes from smoking, making the product easier to smoke and much more appealing to the youth and new smokers. We cannot let another generation of young Americans get hooked on tobacco—the tobacco industry’s targeting of the Black community and others must end now.

Menthol got a pass in 2009 when all other flavored cigarettes were banned under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act . You can join the call and tell the Biden Administration to act against Big Tobacco NOW. Click here to tell President Biden to finally end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.