The Food and Drug Administration announced a plan on Thursday to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes.

“This is potentially an extraordinary, landmark intervention to reduce the No. 1 preventable cause of death and disease,” said Geoffrey Fong, principal investigator of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project, to The New York Times.

Cutting out menthol in cigarettes and cigars could have a significant effect on the number of smokers, FDA sayshttps://t.co/vBmFvAoRhs

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 28, 2022

The outlet reports:

The proposed ban is expected to have the deepest impact on Black smokers, nearly 85 percent of whom use menthol cigarettes, compared with a rate of 29 percent among white smokers, according to a government survey. If effective in reducing smoking, the ban could significantly diminish the burden of chronic disease and limit the number of lives cut short by one of the most hazardous legal products available.

The Wall Street Journal adds:

The proposed menthol ban wouldn’t take effect for at least two years. The FDA will invite public comments on the proposed rules; the agency must then review them all. It could publish final rules as early as 2023, and the ban could be set to take effect in 2024. At least one tobacco company has indicated that it might then sue, which could further delay the ban.

The plan, which has been in the works for more than two decades, is the biggest move the federal government has made to curb cigarette sales since the FDA gained regulatory control over the tobacco industry in 2009.

For tobacco companies, menthols are a crucial segment of the cigarette business. Because menthol smokers skew younger than average, they represent a longer potential lifetime of smoking. The share of U.S. smokers who use menthols has risen continuously, from 30.5% in 2005 to 43% in 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

🧵 Removing menthol and other flavors from combustible tobacco will substantially reduce appeal of products to children. This critical public health step is years in making. FDA staff deserve great credit for their commitment to advancing this policy. 1/3https://t.co/6UKlXkNMnd

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) April 28, 2022

The Washington Post reports on pushback from social justice groups:

The Biden administration, in proposing the menthol ban, is taking on an issue that has fueled strong emotions. While many Black health leaders and civil rights organizations support prohibiting menthol cigarettes, some prominent individuals and groups warn that a ban would turn Black smokers into law breakers and lead to potentially dangerous confrontations with police.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who recently met with administration officials, said in a letter to the White House that a prohibition “would exacerbate existing, simmering issues around racial profiling, discrimination, and policing.” He urged the administration instead to create a commission to study the potential effects of a menthol ban on Black communities.

“We’re not opposing anything, we’re raising questions and asking them to get these answers,” Sharpton said in an interview with The Post’s Health 202 this week.

The Post adds:

The FDA has said consumers will not be in the crosshairs of the ban.

“If implemented, the FDA’s enforcement of any ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars will only address manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers and retailers,” agency officials said last year in announcing plans to propose a ban.

“The FDA has no authority to enforce against possession,” said Joelle Lester, director of commercial tobacco control programs at the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota.