Life expectancy gap in U.S. widens to 20 years due to "truly alarming" health disparities, researchers say

[MichMan]

10. Maybe the Federal government should have banned menthol cigarettes instead of stalling for a over a decade

In 2009, the FDA banned all flavored cigarettes, but exempted menthol.

Non-Hispanic Black or African American people who smoke cigarettes, regardless of age, are more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than people of other races or ethnicities who smoke cigarettes.16 It is estimated that between 1980 – 2018, 1.5 million African Americans began smoking menthol cigarettes and 157,000 African Americans died prematurely because of menthol cigarettes.

In 2018, 51.4% of non-Hispanic Black and 50.6% of Hispanic high school and middle school students who smoked used menthol cigarettes, compared to 42.8% of non-Hispanic White youth.

In 2018-2019, approximately 70% of Black or African American adults 18-34 years old who currently smoked cigarettes used menthol cigarettes, compared to 39% of White adults in that same age group.

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/menthol-tobacco/health-disparities.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/menthol/related-health-disparities.html

Proposed again in 2022, yet 2 years later, still no action.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is announcing proposed product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars. These actions have the potential to significantly reduce disease and death from combusted tobacco product use, the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., by reducing youth experimentation and addiction, and increasing the number of smokers that quit.

“The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Additionally, the proposed rules represent an important step to advance health equity by significantly reducing tobacco-related health disparities.”

These proposed product standards are based on clear science and evidence establishing the addictiveness and harm of these products and build on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which prohibited all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco and menthol) in cigarettes in 2009. They are also a critical piece of the Administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years; tobacco use is a leading cause of cancer and death from cancer, and approximately 30 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States are caused by smoking.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-proposes-rules-prohibiting-menthol-cigarettes-and-flavored-cigars-prevent-youth-initiation