(Studies are inconclusive on whether menthol cigarettes are more, or less, addictive and harmful than unflavored ones.)
"For me, I think I'm addicted twice, once to the menthol and then second to the tobacco," said one smoker in a small group discussion with black adult smokers in the Atlanta area, which was held by the CDC and summarized in a study published this year in Ethnicity & Health, an academic journal.
Marketing campaigns have greatly influenced consumers. Menthol cigarettes have been heavily promoted to African-Americans since the 1960s, numerous studies have documented. A study released this year by the Harvard School of Public Health found that menthol cigarettes are increasingly popular with adolescents, partly because tobacco companies have new milder brands that facilitate "initiation."
African-Americans have disproportionately high rates of death and disease from smoking, and 75 percent of black smokers choose menthol cigarettes. The House bill calls for review within one year of menthol cigarettes by a scientific advisory committee. (The White House has threatened to veto the bill, saying that the FDA already carries a heavy workload and that the agency's oversight could lead the public to mistakenly conclude that some cigarettes are safe.)
"We experience more deaths and disease, and that alone to me should warrant the immediate banning of menthol," said William Robinson, executive director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, which withdrew its support of the House bill because of the menthol exemption.
Robinson said that at a recent family reunion in Norwalk, Connecticut, he rounded up a dozen or so cousins - men and women ages 30 to 50, all of whom smoked menthols - to talk about the possible ban. Without exception, he said, all said they would quit smoking if menthol cigarettes were not available. "They said they couldn't tolerate the harshness of other products," he said.
But it may take more than a ban - or the health warnings or the US$5 pack - to stop some smokers. Heath, the music producer, said he has tried to quit, without success. He has tried wearing nicotine patches, and he doubts that a menthol ban would work, either.
"Most likely I'd continue to smoke it underground, or I'd switch to other cigarettes," he said.
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