PAGE 22
PROGRAM SUCCESS – JULY 2010
BANNING MENTHOL
IS BESIDE THE POINT
By Harry Alford, President
National Black Chamber of Commerce
One good measure of our government is the intensity with
which it attacks real problems that affect Americans - and
whether it avoids overregulation that leads to bad policies.
By that standard, it is worth keeping an eye these days on
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
For years now, activists have tried to give the FDA power
over tobacco. That battle is now over. Congress indeed
gave the FDA that power last year, passing legislation that
allows the FDA to review and evaluate the health issues
relating to cigarettes and other tobacco products - but not
to ban tobacco.
The question now is whether regulators will thumb their
nose at Congress by taking actions that seek a backdoor
ban of tobacco through “the death of a thousand cuts.”
The first test is whether a FDA scientific advisory
committee will recommend the elimination of menthol in
cigarettes.
It is curious if not noteworthy that the first major test of
the FDA comes on the topic of menthol, an issue of
importance to African Americans. It is no secret that
menthol cigarettes provide a distinctive taste that is
preferred by some smokers including many African
Americans. Yet there is no hard scientific evidence that
menthol itself is harmful, that menthol creates a greater
disease risk, or that menthol makes it easier to start or stop
smoking - including among African American smokers.
The fact is menthol, no matter what you think of smoking,
is a rather inconsequential ingredient in a cigarette.
Menthol is as old as the hills. It has been used for decades
in cigarettes; it is used in everyday products you put in
your mouth and on your skin, such as mouthwash and
lotions.
One real danger is that the FDA panel will simply parrot
the words of Big Pharmaceutical companies that want to
make Big Profits from smoking cessation products. It is
shocking that the FDA scientific committee includes
members who worked for pharmaceutical companies that
produce smoking cessation products and who,
themselves, helped develop those products.
Banning
menthol
would have real-world
ramifications that so far
have
not
been
considered by the FDA
committee.
First and foremost, it
would create an illegal
market of unsafe,
unregulated cigarettes.
An
extensive
underground market
Harry Alford
already exists for
cigarettes, in which
cartons are shipped from low-tax states to high-tax states.
Law enforcement agencies cannot keep pace with this
counterfeiting. If menthol were banned, this illicit market
would undoubtedly expand. It is not a stretch to believe
that it would be controlled by organized crime. And the
worst part is that illegal cigarettes will not be sold in
stores where clerks must check to make sure buyers are
adults but rather on the internet and on street corners
where minors would have easier access to cigarettes.
If Congress wanted the FDA to ban cigarettes, then it
should have had the guts to do so, and not nitpick on a
harmless component of cigarettes. But Congress did not
take that step.
Banning menthol in cigarettes should strike even the
strongest anti-smokers - and certainly many African
Americans - as utterly beside the point and even
detrimental. That is especially true when there is a lack of
hard scientific evidence of harm from menthol, and when
we celebrate an era in which informed, adult Americans
should have the right to personally choose among legal
products. The FDA has plenty on its plate and should
focus on issues that really matter.
Alford is the co-founder and President/CEO of the
National Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents
the 1.2 million Black owned businesses within America.
For further information or to schedule an interview with
Mr. Alford, media representatives may contact Charlotte
Roy at [email protected] or 404-531-6777.