By Jennifer Maloney and Liz Essley Whyte
The Biden administration is reversing course on its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, after the White House weighed the potential public-health benefits of banning minty smokes against the political risk of angering Black voters in an election year.
The administration is expected to announce its decision as soon as Friday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.
Menthols account for more than a third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year and are predominantly used by Black and Hispanic smokers. Some 81% of Black smokers used menthols in 2020, compared with 30% of white smokers and 51% of Hispanic smokers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
The Biden administration in 2021 began pursuing a ban on menthol cigarettes, saying the policy move would reduce youth initiation, increase the success rate for smokers trying to quit and address health disparities among people of color. The plan was part of the administration's Cancer Moonshot initiative to reduce the death rate from cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration had been expected to adopt a new rule banning menthols last year, but the plan was delayed as the White House mulled its political repercussions.
Some Black community leaders had fought the measure, saying a ban would expand the illicit market for cigarettes and lead police to racially profile Black smokers. The American Civil Liberties Union and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus expressed similar concerns.
The two largest U.S. cigarette makers, Altria Group and Reynolds American, disputed the FDA's conclusions on the health effects of menthols and argued that a ban would have unintended consequences.
Reynolds makes Newport, the leading U.S. menthol-cigarette brand, and funded opposition efforts by Black leaders. British American Tobacco in 2017 spent about $50 billion to take full control of Reynolds American.
For decades, cigarette companies marketed menthol brands such as Newport, Kool and Salem to Black people, distributing free packs in Black neighborhoods and running magazine and billboard ads depicting Black smokers. The companies also encouraged the belief that menthols had a medicinal effect.
A study from the University of Waterloo in Canada, which evaluated bans on menthol cigarettes in Canada and the European Union, projected that a U.S. ban on menthol cigarettes would prompt 1.3 million smokers to quit, including more than 380,000 Black smokers, in the first four to 23 months after the ban went into effect.
California and Massachusetts have implemented their own bans on menthol cigarettes, as have more than 100 municipalities across the U.S. The EU imposed a similar ban in 2020.
Write to Jennifer Maloney at Jennifer.Maloney@wsj.com and Liz Essley Whyte at liz.whyte@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2024 14:17 ET (18:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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