Michelle Albert, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA
Recently, two AHA volunteer leaders, Dr. Keith Churchwell, M.D., FAHA, President-elect of the AHA and Dr. Michelle Albert, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.C, FAHA former AHA President have both written opinion pieces on the need to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
In a letter to the editor Dr. Churchwell submitted last year, he described how the tobacco industry has been targeting specific communities with menthol cigarettes for decades, “I experienced this firsthand while growing up in East Nashville, Tennessee, a predominantly African American area in my youth. I remember seeing billboards and signs in neighborhood groceries and pharmacies for menthol cigarettes that made them look “cool.”
Those ads, it turns out, were just the tip of the iceberg. Tobacco companies have a long history of recruiting Black celebrities and athletes as spokespeople and advertising heavily in Black news publications and magazines, among other ways of appealing to Black youth. An article published in the American Journal of Public Health called it “a campaign of ‘masterful manipulation’ targeting menthols to African Americans” beginning in the 1960s.
When I became a doctor, I saw almost daily the devastatingly effective impact of this persuasive effort. In my clinical career as a cardiologist in Nashville and Atlanta, I have cared for thousands of patients. I cannot recall a single one with significant atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who did not smoke. “
Dr. Michelle Albert shared similar sentiments in a letter in Essence Magazine a few months ago, “Removing menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars from the market will save lives, improve health and reduce health care costs. It also will help close serious racial disparities in health.”
“Marginalized communities are affected more than others—in significant part because they are strategically targeted by Big Tobacco’s marketing campaigns to increase sales and profits while causing immense harm to public health. Menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars are important tools in the industry’s marketing kit.”
Read more from Dr. Churchwell here, and Dr. Albert here. Both AHA volunteer leaders, and medical professionals agree, we need to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. These addictive products have caused so much harm to the health of marginalized communities. It’s time to stop the sale and save lives.
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