Editorial Board
The FDA Should Ban Menthol Cigarettes
The cooling flavor attracts young smokers and makes it harder to quit.
Extra dangerous.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Food and Drug Administration faces an April 29 deadline to decide whether to allow menthol cigarettes to remain on the market. To discourage children from starting smoking and to help adults quit, it should ban them. It should also ban menthol and all other flavors except tobacco from e-cigarettes.
The harm that menthol adds to the already injurious practice of smoking has been recognized for many years. In a 2013 review of the science, the FDA concluded it is “likely that menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk above that seen with nonmenthol cigarettes.”