Spread Of Menthol Cigarettes Among Young People

Spread Of Menthol Cigarettes Among Young People.
The competition over menthol-flavored cigarettes heats up again Thursday as a US Food and Drug Administration prediction panel continues a series of hearings on whether to proscribe the cigarettes. The FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee consists of nine members and includes doctors, scientists and prominent strength experts. The tobacco industry is represented by three non-voting members. The cabinet has until next March to report its menthol findings to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Much of the argumentation centers on research that shows that children are particularly drawn to menthol cigarettes, with nearly 45 percent of smokers superannuated 12 to 17 using them, according to a 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Most angry teenaged smokers - and 82,7 percent of black grown smokers - favor menthols, the same survey found. "The manufacturers would have you believe there is not a scintilla of statement that menthol is more dangerous than other cigarettes to the individual smoker, but we do not agree," said Ellen Vargyas, inclusive counsel for the American Legacy Foundation, a smoking prevention and cessation organization in Washington, DC, founded with funding from the milestone 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco effort and state governments.

And "Over 80 percent of African-American smokers smoke menthol, and African-American smokers have the highest rates of lung cancer. We also advised of African-Americans with lung cancer are more appropriate to die from lung cancer," she told HealthDay. In addition, the popularity of menthols centre of younger, newer smokers suggests that maybe the minty taste does encourage relatives to start, perhaps by masking the harsh taste of regular cigarettes. "We know the younger you are and the newer the smoker you are, the more promising you are to smoke menthol. There is a very strong correlation between being a teenaged smoker and menthol cigarettes".

That's no coincidence, asseverate smoking opponents: The tobacco energy has long targeted youth and minorities for menthol cigarette marketing, even manipulating menthol gratify in different brands in an effort to recruit new smokers among youth, according to the US National Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health. The argumentation over how menthols should be regulated was conclusive discussed in July, during the second round of hearings held by the tobacco products advisory committee.

The council was established by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into rules and regulations by President Barack Obama in June 2009. The legislation gave the FDA unprecedented privilege to restrict the marketing of tobacco products. While the law bans cigarette makers from adding sweet or fruit-like flavors such as clove, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa or strawberry to cigarettes, legislators hedged when it came to menthols, the most stylish flavoring by far.

Although menthol was not banned from cigarettes, the law stressed that nothing prevented it from regulating menthol as well. In fact, the pretend required the advisory body to consider menthol cigarettes' impact on public health - including its use among children and minorities - as its primary order of business.

Anti-smoking advocates say there is no evidence that menthols - which recital for an estimated 33,9 percent of the US cigarette market - are less deadly than any other cigarette. Research from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey suggests that they are more addictive, making it harder for smokers to quit, very blacks and Latinos.

During one-time hearings, tobacco industry representatives defended their products, saying menthols are no more destructive than other cigarettes and should not be singled out for a ban. "We don't reckon there is any evidence or even any suggestion that youth would choose not to smoke if menthol products weren't available," said Bill True, superior vice president of research and development for Lorillard Tobacco Co, the makers of Newport cigarettes. "Kids don't smoke because there are menthol cigarettes. Kids smoke for a genre of reasons which are undoubtedly quite complex".

So "Cigarettes do pose significant dangers to an individual's health. In dealing with regulating the product, we suppose the FDA should be looking at those things that are the most significant". On that point, anti-smoking advocates agree vimax. Cigarettes are by their very wildness a deadly product, and legislation to suddenly regulate their manufacture, sale and marketing can't come a moment too soon, said Vargyas.