Biden White House Delays Decision on Menthol Ban

The White House is delaying a decision about whether to ban the use of menthol in cigarettes, pushing the long-awaited final ruling back until spring 2024.

The delay, which was announced Wednesday in an updated timeline on a government website, comes after intense lobbying from tobacco companies and other groups fighting the proposed ban, according to media reports.  A final ruling had originally been expected in August 2023.

As reported by TCTMD, the US Food and Drug Administration, in April 2022, announced formal plans to ban menthol, which is added to cigarettes to reduce the harshness of cigarette smoke and to ease the irritation from nicotine. Menthol is known as a “characterizing flavor” and has been used by tobacco companies for its cooling and soothing effects to make smoking more palatable to new smokers. The FDA also proposed banning flavored cigars. 

Numerous countries, including all of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, have already banned menthol in cigarettes. Last year, the Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA) group, which is led by Robert K. Jackler, MD (Stanford University School of Medicine, CA), published detailed information—drawing in part on internal documents from the tobacco companies themselves—showing that the steady rise in menthol cigarette use was the result of sophisticated advertising directed at young people, women, and Black Americans.

The American Heart Association (AHA) issued a statement in response to the delay, saying it is “deeply disheartened” to learn the final ruling has been put off. “We should not have to wait any longer. The FDA has already been examining this issue for more than a decade,” according to Nancy Brown, chief CEO of the AHA. “Each day we wait for the final rules to be released is another day Big Tobacco will hook new users and target communities with menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.”

Similarly, the American Lung Association pushed the administration of President Joe Biden to finalize the menthol ban as soon as possible, calling the delay a disappointment in a statement.

“The tobacco industry will do anything to protect their profits at the expense of public health,” the group says. “The White House should not fall to the tobacco lobby’s campaign to spread false narratives. Delaying the promulgation of these rules will result in more death and disease from tobacco use.”

Several media outlets report that tobacco companies have been working behind the scenes to align themselves with African American advocacy groups to fight the ban. These groups argue that a menthol ban would criminalize cigarettes favored by Black smokers and lead to heavy-handed policing. Critics, however, contend that such fears are unfounded and are only being stoked by Big Tobacco to protect sales. 

The FDA estimates that banning menthol would translate into a 15% reduction in smoking rates within 40 years, with models suggesting that anywhere from 325,000 to 650,000 deaths attributable to smoking could be avoided (92,000 to 238,000 among African Americans). In 2019, according to the agency, there were more than 18.5 million current menthol cigarette smokers ages 12 and older in the US.