FDA: Menthol cigarettes are more dangerous

A new report from the Food and Drug Administration published Tuesday says that menthol cigarettes are highly likely to pose a greater threat to the public health than regular cigarettes. For tobacco companies, menthols have been a rare growth sector in an otherwise shrinking industry.

The report comes ahead of a Wednesday deadline to respond to the World Trade Organization’s findings in 2012 that the FDA ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distributing candy-, fruit- and clove-flavored tobacco breaks trade rules because it exempts menthol cigarettes.

While the report says there’s little evidence that a menthol cigarette is more harmful or toxic than a regular one based on the chemicals inside the cigarette, when combined with other factors such as marketing, the increased level of difficulty in quitting smoking menthols, the increased likelihood of smoking among young people and impact on the population, menthols are more dangerous. The study also says use of menthols is greater among African Americans than whites.

The report comes four years after a federal law banned the sale of flavored cigarettes but exempted menthols from the law. The new report takes the agency one step closer to making a decision on whether or not to ban the mint-flavored cigarettes.

"Menthol cigarettes raise critical public health questions," Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products, said in a conference call with reporters.

Phone calls and e-mails to reach Phillip Morris USA, Reynolds America and Lorillard Tobacco, manufacturers of the most popular cigarette brands in the U.S., were not returned by press time.

A ban on menthol cigarettes would have the greatest impact on Greensboro, N.C. based Lorillard, America’s oldest and third largest tobacco manufacturer, whose Newport brand is the top-selling cigarette in the nation according to the Associated Press, making up 38 percent of the market.

Lorillard CEO Murray Kessler said in a statement that his company looks forward to participating in the regulatory process and reiterated its long-held belief that menthol cigarettes shouldn't be treated differently.

A 2011 FDA advisory panel report, mandated by the 2009 law that gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, included many of the same findings, and said removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit public health. The report highlighted the greater use of menthols among minorities, teens and low-income Americans. While the FDA doesn’t have to follow recommendations from advisory panels, it typically does.

According to the Associated Press, a tobacco industry report to the FDA acknowledged that all cigarettes are hazardous but said there's no scientific basis for regulating menthols differently. The industry also has raised concerns that restrictions on menthol would lead to a black market for the cigarettes.

The FDA wants input from members of the health community, tobacco industry and the public before it makes any decision on potential restrictions for the mint-flavored cigarettes.

Joseph Califano Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, and Louis Sullivan, former Health and Human Services Secretary for President George H.W. Bush, said in a joint statement that the FDA is “kicking the can down the road.”

"The failure of this administration to act undermines the public health and is particularly harmful to vulnerable young Americans and African-Americans," the statement read.

Al Jazeera and wire services