US Attitudes About Banning Menthol in Cigarettes: Results From a Nationally Representative Survey

摘要

Menthol is a cigarette flavoring that makes smoking more appealing to smokers. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulatory authority to ban mentholated cigarettes to reduce youth uptake and encourage adult cessation. Survey findings indicate that more than half of all Americans (56.1%) and of Blacks alone (68.0% in one sample and 75.8% in another) support banning menthol. Endorsement of a ban—especially by Blacks, who have the highest rates of menthol cigarette use—would support FDA action to ban menthol to protect the public's health. Smoking causes preventable disease and death. 1 Menthol cigarette flavoring plays a role in promoting smoking by enhancing the taste of smoke, decreasing the unpleasantness of early smoking experiences, and impeding adults’ efforts to quit. 2 – 12 Youths smoke mentholated cigarettes (menthols) at higher rates than do older smokers (47.7% of those aged 12–17 years vs 31.5% of those older than 25 years). 10 In addition, menthols have been heavily marketed with great success to certain demographic groups; 82.6% of Black smokers and 23.8% of White smokers smoke menthols. 10 Adult menthol smokers are either equally motivated to quit or more motivated to quit compared with comparable nonmenthol smokers, but menthol smokers report greater difficulty in sustaining cessation. 9 , 11 – 14 The US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products now regulates tobacco. Cigarettes with flavors such as chocolate have already been banned, with the rationale that such a ban would discourage youth initiation, but menthol was exempted from the ban; the Center for Tobacco Products is considering a separate ban on menthol. Menthols account for approximately 32% of the cigarette market, 10 but little is known regarding public support for banning menthol as a characterizing flavor of cigarettes. We conducted a survey to discern adults’ attitudes regarding a ban on menthols in the United States.