State Rep. Vivian Flowers said she was surprised, in a bad way, that African Americans were not making more progress in stopping the use of menthol-flavored tobacco products. And we have to say, we were a bit shocked as well.
Flowers made the comments Sunday at an event held to draw attention to No Menthol Sunday, which, as the name suggests, is a day in which to steer clear of such products.
Flowers and the other speakers were convincing in the facts they presented. One pointed out that a high percentage of Blacks who use tobacco use menthol-flavored tobacco.
Another said that when the 2009 Tobacco Control Act was passed, menthol should have been banned, but as the Food and Drug Administration’s website stated, menthol is the “last allowable flavor.”
Others talked about the predatory tobacco marketing campaigns that zero in on African American communities and the young.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Away from tobacco, menthol is a refreshing and bracing additive to mints and other candy. But mixed in with tobacco, menthol — it is said — masks the harshness of smoking tobacco.
A youngster smoking a first cigarette, which is infused with menthol, comes away thinking the experience wasn’t so bad, which is the goal of the tobacco industry. A few packs later and the addictive qualities of nicotine are hard at work, creating another hooked customer.
As Flowers put it, allowing this situation to exist, is “patently racist, patently unhealthy and patently wrong.”
Even the monetary angle was highlighted. Some of these families are already at-risk when it comes to finances, the speakers stated, and the money to support a tobacco addiction is money that could have been used to put food on a table.
The event, which was attributed to several different groups, including the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas, was to raise awareness of the issue and also to get pastors to push the message from their pulpits. One after another, the reverends said they would take on the challenge, with some saying menthol-flavored or not, tobacco was a strain on a human body and a family, and it should be avoided.
On the good news front on the subject, the FDA announced recently that it is committed to removing menthol flavoring from cigarettes and all flavorings from cigars. As the speakers said, that should have happened more than a decade ago. Let’s hope it gets past the tobacco lobby this time.