FDA And Menthols

[Dee]

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_repo ... R_ID=52114


Legislation that would allow FDA to regulate flavored tobacco products would exempt regulation of menthol cigarettes, which are widely used among blacks, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, public health experts have long suspected that "menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans." Nearly 75% of black smokers use menthol flavored cigarettes, compared with about one in four white smokers.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and 56 co-sponsors in the Senate, would give FDA the authority to remove addictive additives if they have proven to be harmful. Menthol flavored products were excluded from the bill because they are "crucial to the American cigarette industry" -- such products represent more than 25% of the $70 billion tobacco market, the Times reports. Without the exclusion, the legislation might not have a chance of passing, according to the Times. The bill would also regulate advertisements and promotions for tobacco products.

The protection given to menthol in the legislation has raised concern from some health experts, but a black advocacy group supports the bill.
Menthol Controversy
Menthol has been "particularly controversial" because of concerns about its health effects on black, according to the Times. There have been divided reports on whether it is more addictive and harmful, the Times reports. In 1998, CDC reported that "menthol may increase the absorption of harmful smoking constituents," but four years later, the agency along with the National Cancer Institute, said studies on the effects of menthol are inconclusive. To date, of five large tobacco studies, one has concluded that men menthol smokers have higher cancer risks, but a "growing body of evidence suggests that menthol makes it harder to kick the smoking habit," according to the Times.
Comments
William Robinson, the executive director of the National African-American Tobacco Prevention Network, said that the exclusion was needed for passage of the bill but that the issue could be re-examined in the future. "The bottom line is we want the legislation," Robinson said, adding, "But we want to reserve the right to address this issue at some critical point because of the percentage of people of African descent who use mentholated products." Former Ohio Sen. Mike Dewine (R), who was part of the negotiations between Philip Morris and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids during the development of the bill, said, "My recollection is that we were able to eliminate the use of flavored cigarettes, strawberry, mocha, and all this stuff that is clearly targeted at young kids and to start them smoking tobacco," adding, "Where the compromise was made as I recall was on menthol."

Robert Robinson, former associate director in the office of smoking and health at CDC, said, "I think we can say definitively that menthol induces smoking in the African-American community and subsequently serves as a direct link to African-American death and disease." However, Michael Robinson -- a spokesperson for Lorillard, which makes Newport, the top-selling menthol product to blacks -- in a statement said, "Bottom line, the scientific publications to date have not concluded that menthol cigarettes are more hazardous or addictive than nonmenthol cigarettes" (Saul, New York Times, 5/13).

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[WinstonSmith]

This is SO RACIST that I can't even begin right now to give a lengthy explanation of why it is so racist.

Where it isn't racist, its just plain dumb!

Blacks smoke menthols alot...so if you take the menthol out of the cigarettes....EUREKA! THE BLACKS WILL QUIT SMOKING!

Typical anti-smoking magical thinking!



I might add more on this later.

[Dee]

I couldn't believe how racist it was either.

[WinstonSmith]

According to the same logic, if they could just get the "Marlboro taste" out of Marlboros, they could keep the white and hispanic people from smoking too!

"Sales data from 2006 indicate that Marlboro is the most popular brand in the United States, with sales greater than the five leading competitors combined. The market share for Marlboro is 40.5%, followed by Newport (8.9%), Camel (6.6%), Doral (4.4%), Basic (3.8%), Winston (3.5%), and Kool (3.2%).3"

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statist ... d_pref.htm



http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nhsda/tobacco/chapter7.htm

Short answer: People tend to smoke the same brand of cigarettes that the people around them are smoking.

Jacob Sullum covered this in his book (which I don't have with me at the moment) and, basically, tobacco advertising is most effective in determining brand preference, and much less effective at actually leading anyone into beginning to smoke any particular brand.

Now, let's talk about why this is so racist.

There is a very basic, obvious and completely selective assumption here.

The racist assumption is that there is some kind of inherent physiological diference in black people that makes them like menthol taste better solely and exclusively because of their skin color.

Dr. Siegel decried Congress and the FDA on his blog as

selling out the health of African Americans to appease Philip Morris and protect the financial interests of Big Tobacco.

!

Unbelievable!

Believing that African Americans use menthol cigarettes to a greater degree because of the menthol taste is absolutely no different than believing that skin color is the determining factor regarding how much one likes fried chicken or watermelon.

If people of a particular race use a particular product more than another race it is almost definitely because of a combination of demographic marketing, culture, and economics.

Believing that taking the menthol out of cigarettes is going to somehow decrease smoking among blacks in particular is no less racist than believing that you'd get more blacks to read if the smell of fried chicken emanated from a library. It's just evil and and f**king stupid!

I'd be willing to bet that the tobacco manufacturers pointed out what I'm pointing out, so Congress just dropped the whole menthol thing like a hot potato because the reasoning is so flawed. When the microphone gets in front of their face, what are they supposed to say?

Why, I think our public health institutions have become so blind in their crusade that they've unwittingly engaged in the worst kind of racism...?

They couldn't say that. That would be telling the truth.

[gilster]

Rush Limbaugh's take on the Menthol issue

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_051308/content/01125107.guest.html

Congress Gives Big Tobacco a Pass on Menthol in Cigarette Bill
May 13, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, ladies and gentlemen, from the New York Times today, this is just too rich. This is just too good. "Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time. The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking's allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon. But those new strictures would exempt menthol -- even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners and may make it harder for the addicted to kick the smoking habit.

"For years, public health authorities have worried that menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans. The reason menthol is seen as politically off limits, despite those concerns, is that mentholated brands are so crucial to the American cigarette industry. They make up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion American cigarette market and are becoming increasingly important to the industry leader, Philip Morris USA, without whose lobbying support the legislation might have no chance of passage. 'I would have been in favor of banning menthol,' said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who supports the bill. 'But as a practical matter that simply wasn't doable.'"

Do you see where this is going, folks? Have you connected the dots on this already? "Menthol is particularly controversial because public health authorities have worried about its health effects on African-Americans. Nearly 75 percent of black smokers use menthol brands, compared with only about one in four white smokers." Now, some of you might be saying, "Why? Why are they exempting menthol from the ban on flavored cigarettes?" (laughing) You think about it, folks. You think about it, and I'll clue you in when we get back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, have you had enough time here to think about, ladies and gentlemen, why indeed the US Congress is going to exempt menthol flavoring from the ban on flavored cigarettes, especially when you find out that 75% of menthol cigarettes are purchased by African-Americans? Can you imagine what's going to happen when the Reverend Jeremiah Wright finds out about this? When the Reverend Jeremiah Wright finds out that 75% of blacks smoke menthol flavored cigarettes and that menthol is the only flavoring that's not going to be banned, what do you think he's going to charge? He's going to say that this is a planned genocide against African-Americans who smoke by the US government in this country, and would he be wrong? May I speak boldly here? We keep hearing, and we have heard, for years and years and years, that cigarette smoking kills, that tobacco kills. During these years, during these decades, what have we done? We have not banned the product, have we? No. We have banned the places it can be used, but we have not banned the product. In fact, we have increased taxes on the product.

We used the taxes on the sale of tobacco product -- let's talk cigarettes here, for example -- to fund health care programs and other wasteful government spending. In fact, the tobacco settlements were all about socializing tobacco company profits. Governments routinely have looted these piles of money that states collected in the tobacco settlement plan. They will not ban the program. They will not ban the product, even though the product kills. They keep restricting how it can be used. But they keep adding taxes to it to fund government programs. If it kills, if it is this deadly, and if it raises health care costs and all these things, then why are only the cigarettes smoked by blacks going to continue to be made? Hmm? It kills. Now, some of you might be saying, "No, Rush, you're wrong," and Jeremiah Wright would be wrong. They're just afraid of reaction from the black population. They need the black votes and they're not going to disturb anything. Okay, let's go with that theory. I don't care which theory you use. I don't care which answer you use. It still proves that those in government who say they're out to save lives are lying to us.

They're not about saving lives. They're about raising taxes. It's about increasing government revenue. It's about keeping people addicted to these things. And once again, here are the superdelegates all concerned that if they took the nomination away from Obama, that it would cause a fissure, a permanent fissure in the Democrat Party and the Democrats would lose the support of blacks every four years during a presidential race, and I kept saying no, no, no, no, no, to the superdelegates. You have nothing to worry about. You have done far worse than that to the black population. You have destroyed the black family with your welfare programs and the Great Society and the war on poverty. You have done far more damage to the black population of this country than you would by pulling the nomination from Obama, and here's another example. They're gonna ban all the flavorings in cigarettes except menthol 'cause 75% of blacks smoke menthol? (laughing) You just have to laugh because these people will show us who they are each and every day
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We go to Rockford, Illinois. This is David. Thank you for waiting, sir. You're next.

CALLER: Morning, Rush. Nice to talk to you today.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Good afternoon, actually. I was calling up about your statements earlier regarding the cigarettes, the menthols for black people. I think it's not so much that they're trying to target black people, which, you know, they're targeting anybody to make a profit, but they want to keep their menthol, their flavored cigarettes as the only flavored cigarettes that are exempt so they can make even more profit.

RUSH: Oh! So it's a Big Tobacco scheme?

CALLER: Yeah, just to keep making more money.

RUSH: I see. I see. So the government ban, the government ban on all the other flavors besides menthol really is not true. This is Big Tobacco scheming to get rid of the cinnamon and the clove flavored cigarettes 'cause they're not profitable, stick with the menthol, which is profitable?

CALLER: Make more profit.

RUSH: Yeah, but the problem is that Big Tobacco is being told by government that they have to ban all but menthol. It's government making this decision.

CALLER: Well, do all the big major ones, do they all make menthol? I know the big major ones make menthol, but do all the big major ones make clove and cinnamon and --

RUSH: They do, but you're missing the point, nobody smokes clove or cinnamon. It's not a big deal anymore, but 75% of black smokers smoke menthol cigarettes. Everywhere in the country we're trying to dissuade people from smoking cigarettes. Smoking flavored cigarettes is said to be an enticement to young churrin because it masks the harsh flavor of a normal cigarette. But we're going to leave menthol in there so we're encouraging African-Americans to smoke. Of course there's profit in it. But this is crystal clear. The very liberals who claim to want the best for our minorities make it possible for them to continue to get menthol flavored cigarettes which they smoke, you know, 75%, and we know what they all say about tobacco and nicotine cigarettes, and it kills, causes cancer. So the government's firmly standing behind cancer for blacks via menthol cigarettes. They want all the other people -- white people -- who smoke cinnamon and clove flavor to quit because they won't be able to get their little candy cigarettes. But the black people are going to be able to keep getting their candy cigarettes. So the government, the liberal government saves the white people and kills the black people via cigarettes. I'm telling you, wait 'til Jeremiah Wright hears about this, or wait 'til his substitute whatever new preacher at the Trinity Church. When they hear about this, I want to see that sermon.
END TRANSCRIPT

[WinstonSmith]

Yeah, I heard this on Rush's show yesterday in my car during lunch.

I think he's just making things up out of thin air on this one. Right after he made this statement, he ended with some completely off-the-wall conspiracy theorist that he humored until the commercial break. This statement is probably what drew that caller in.

Based on other recent comments Limbaugh has made, I'm led to believe he was trying to go somewhere with this and it all just kind of fell apart when he was trying to say it. He's been going on alot lately about how he believes democrats have created a system that targets and exploits blacks through social welfare to create a perpetual underclass for the purposes of maintaining political power. No comment on that, but I think he was trying to tie this whole menthol thing into it and it didn't really make alot of sense. It's just conspiratorial and based on the same racist assumption that blacks are somehow inherently attracted to menthol by virtue of the color of their skin.

Also, when did Limbaugh suddenly start believing the government should move in on tobacco? He's playing this whole thing to suit the needs of his argument. He does that quite a bit.

[Jay]

Regulation of menthols is indirect discrimination towards Afro_Americans who smoke. There are still so many secret haters of us Blacks out hee, now they wanna take away the most favorite flava of cigs among Black smokers.

Based on anti illogic of menthols being more dangerous to smoke, why would they be interested in regulating menthols? If they get rid of menthols, they wouldn't be able to see me die very soon for just smoking the menthols, I thought they enjoyed seeing me and otha Blacks die from smoking. LOL!!!

But in seriousness, there is NO WAY smoking menthols can killinq anyone. That's just a scare tatic towards partIcularly Black smokers on menthols being more dangerous.

[Harlow]

Lots of us whites smoke menthols too! But aside from that, I'm sick to death of the racism involved in this menthol argument. It's obviously targeting black smokers and I wish a black leader would step up and say so - loudly. The "protect black Americans" from something they don't want protection from is ludicrous and once again I have to mention the similarity of the old Jim Crow laws and smoking bans. The wording on the signs has changed but it's exactly the same ugliness all over again. Here's a quick video I did on Jim Crow.



http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tnmqzIM5iNs

[kabina]

When sending out an appeal letter for an AMA and FDA approved treatment, who should I CC the appeal letter to? Coverage was denied for a treatment that has been approved as medically necessary by the AMA and FDA. I wrote out a strong appeal letter, but who should I CC the letter to?
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