https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/big-tobacco-gets-boost-trump The FDA has been working toward a ban on menthol cigarettes since 2022, but on President Donald Trump’s second day in office, the proposed ban was withdrawn quietly without explanation. Back to basics. Smoking is bad for you and menthol cigarettes are no safer than regular cigarettes. Flavourings, like menthol, make smoking more appealing to young smokers, which is why Canada banned menthol cigarettes years ago. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working toward a ban since 2022. On Jan. 21, President Donald Trump’s second day in office, the proposed ban was withdrawn quietly without fanfare or explanation. I don’t expect it will be put forward again. If any smoker or ex-smoker remembers their first cigarette, it was probably disgusting. Tobacco companies have long used flavourings to overcome this drawback and make their product more palatable to prospective clients. Many tobacco flavourings were designed to mimic the taste of candy and provide an obvious enticement to young people, whom tobacco company executives famously termed “replacement smokers.” Flavoured cigarettes were banned in the United States in 2009, but with one glaring exception: Menthol cigarettes were still allowed. One of the great public health achievements of the 20th century was the introduction of anti-smoking laws. Yet while overall smoking rates have decreased, the market share of menthol cigarettes has gone up. In 2020, over 40 per cent of active smokers smoked menthol cigarettes. They are most likely to be young, African-American, Hispanic or part of some other minority. That’s because tobacco companies have been aggressively marketing menthol cigarettes to key demographics for years. The move was a strategic pivot after the industry was barred from advertising to children and had to abandon ads like the infamous Flintstones commercial where Fred and Barney took a smoking break. In Canada, provinces started banning menthol cigarettes in 2015, with Health Canada finalizing a national ban in 2017. Two studies — the Ontario Menthol Ban Study and the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) Canada Survey — evaluated the impact of this ban on Canadian smokers. One analysis that combined the data from these two studies found that the menthol ban led to an eight percentage point bump in quit rates among daily smokers. If these numbers were applied to a U.S. population, a similar menthol ban there would see nearly 800,000 daily smokers quit the habit. That number would jump to 1.4 million if you included occasional smokers. Modelling studies from the U.S. estimate the menthol ban would prevent 255,000 deaths over a 40-year period. The FDA has been contemplating a ban on menthol cigarettes for years. They proposed one in 2022 and sent it to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in October 2023 for approval. The Biden administration delayed that approval to hold public consultations with groups opposed to the ban, and multiple delays eventually meant the proposal was overtaken by the US election. Opponents of the ban claimed that making menthol cigarettes illegal would simply lead to more black market sales. While that sounds convincing in theory, we don’t have to speculate on what might happen in the event of a ban. After banning menthol cigarettes in Canada, there was no observed increase in illicit cigarette purchases, which puts the lie to this particular talking point. No explanation was given for why the proposed menthol ban was withdrawn because health agencies like the FDA have received a directive to halt external communications. So we can only speculate on why this administration felt menthol cigarettes should still be sold to the public. In the absence of any official statement, the more cynical among us will think industry lobbying swayed the decision makers. What is clear is that leaving menthol out of the 2009 ban on flavoured cigarettes was a mistake and a loophole that should have been closed long ago. We’ve banned menthol cigarettes in Canada, and the current U.S. administration should do the same. Because menthol cigarettes aren’t going to make America healthy again.
No surprise whatsoever that the "pro life" Trump would put the interest of the cancer stick makers over Americans health but Biden and his horse crap excuse certainly doesn't get a pass when he could have banned the cigarettes in 2022. Biden supporters have no high ground to stand on criticizing Trump on his pro corporate policies when Biden spent his entire Senate career (and presidency) fighting for corporations over people and workers.
You fought for Trump, you got Trump. Extreme progressives led their mandate to join the Trump bus, now they rant about Joe as it runs them over. There are days I miss my coffin nails. Each one was like a lottery ticket to freedom from earthly BS.
I did not fight or vote for Trump Sir. Progressives were going to get ran over by Trump and Biden/Harris .I would rather get ran over by Trump because he told us he would run us over so I know to brace myself for impact.Biden and Harris type Democrats tell us they are going to give us a bus ride to Nirvana than run us over with the bus instead.
You would have got most of what you wanted in a second term. Joe got too old, he was to an extent at least being managed. As Trump now is. One day in England when my girlfriend from Rwanda was mobbed by UKIP door knockers at our flat. I was just arriving home and behind them in the corridor. She was holding her own, I hung back and listened smiling but one raised an arm. i grabbed two dragged them by the scruff to a toilet that was down the hall (Victorian building had some peculiar relics) and put both their heads into the bowl area in a kissing each other position. That is the last time I recall somebody calling me sir a lot in feiged politeness. The mess to clean up is now uuuge. Won't be whiner extreme progressive doing this. I still like Warren I still like Sanders. They do understand things realpolitik better though.
The time of the violent altruistic punisher is dawning. They really just wanted to sit this stupid cycle out.
Just had a buddy last night tell me that at least with this administration in power we're hearing a lot less about woke and political correctness. Sleep walking into authoritarianism.
I have actually seen a baboon that had the face eaten by a leopard. Leopards have a system, disembowel with back claws, eat face. America is now in a sickness that will last longer than most think.
Damn! I thought that the big cats go for the jugular at the earliest opportunity, which almost seems humane for a predator. But this face-eating and disemboweling thing is Hannibal Lecter shit.
Faces are delicious! I guess as baboon skulls are a certain shape, the face is a useful handle while the back claws disembowel? Leopards do particularly detest baboons though. Leopards will also go for your junk, a nice soft bite. I miss those days when a practical lesson was never far away for a foolish person.