Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy released the “most comprehensive investigation of commercial tobacco-related health disparities” by the office to date. The 837-page report included key findings on how the marketing of menthol-flavored cigarettes toward Black Americans led to smoking-related poor health outcomes.
“Tobacco use imposes a heavy toll on families across generations,” said Murthy in his statement. “Now is the time to accelerate our efforts to create a world in which zero lives are harmed by or lost to tobacco. This report offers a vision for a tobacco-free future, focused on those who bear the greatest burden, and serves as a call to action for all people to play a role in realizing that vision.”
Limiting menthol sales and marketing could save more than 654,000 lives over the next four decades, according to research cited in the report.
“I remember the Surgeon General’s report from 1998, the first one that came out that looked at health disparities around racial and ethnic minorities,” said Dr. Phillip Gardiner, co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. “Unfortunately, the same findings back then have been replicated now: that folks of color, and particularly African Americans, are dying disproportionately of tobacco related diseases including heart disease, lung cancer, and cerebral vascular disease or stroke.”
The findings frequently examine menthol’s impact on Black New Yorkers, from mentioning efforts by the late Rev. Calvin Butts III of the Abyssinian Church against targeted tobacco ads to a study on family and peer impact for 475 Black and Puerto Rican youth in Harlem.
Dr. Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, recalls how endemic menthol ads were around Harlem before Butts’ efforts and says she has lost family members to smoking-related illness.
“[Nationally] several years ago, we started with not taking any funds from the tobacco industry,” said Dukes over the phone. “And we’ve been working with the New York State Conference over the last five years with the Tobacco-Free Kids program. That is to get the bill passed in the city council as well as the state legislature to ban menthol and [candy-flavored tobacco].”
While the Biden administration mulled over a federal menthol ban, efforts stalled. Other conversations occurred on the state and local legislative level, according to American Cancer Society Action Network’s Michael Davoli. Yet menthol cigarettes remain sold in New York City.
“Multiple times the federal, state, and city government have actually looked at this issue and then failed to do anything,” said Davoli. “Meanwhile, people continue to get out on menthol cigarettes and die from tobacco related illness, and this is something that’s been going on for 50-plus years. It’s incredibly disappointing, and here we are now [with] another Surgeon General report coming out, reminding us all about how deadly these tobacco products are, yet there’s still no action from the federal government [and] state governments.”
With the ban likely not happening under President Joe Biden and potentially other healthcare priorities under President-elect Donald Trump, Davoli believes the best shot would be to tackle policy from a state and municipal level. Two states (California and Massachusetts) and roughly 200 municipalities have already banned menthol sales.
Gardiner says the proposed federal ban also focuses on menthol as a minty flavor rather than as a substance, meaning the health and addictive factors would still remain. 
While menthol bans remain constantly in a loop despite roughly half a decade of research and advocacy, the experts expressed frustration in how quickly flavored e-cigarettes were banned, which they see as steeped in racial factors.
“This disparity has been going on for a very long time, and as soon as young white folks started using flavored e-cigarettes, there’s a big uproar,” said Gardiner. “There’s a whole debate about that. In fact, the case is in front of the Supreme Court as we sit here and talk. But [all the] while menthol just languishes.”
Altruistic concerns against a menthol ban largely stem from the perceived criminalization of the tobacco product, with fears of further policing in Black and Brown communities. Candace Prince-Modeste, NAACP Jamaica Branch’s president, says she empathizes with those fears and believes a criminal justice lens is critical, but feels the public health toll is too high.
“Everyone does not feel the same about the issue,” said Prince-Modeste. “There are folks who feel very strongly in terms of preserving the health and well being of their peers. And then there are others who are squarely focused on the criminalization side, and there’s definitely valid points on both sides. But that’s one reason why I think it hasn’t gone as far as I believe it should have in New York City.”
To be clear, banning menthol retail sales has not led to a single arrest, according to Gardiner. But beyond anti-carceral pushback, Prince-Modeste sees enduring menthol sales as a reflection of how endemic smoking is to American life, particularly in pop culture. Even with restrictions, the impact remains, she says.
“Advertisement is pretty much taboo at this point, in some cases outright illegal,” she said. “But when they’ve been exposed to it day in and day out when their grandmother sent them to the grocery store or to the corner store to get it, or if they borrowed one from their uncle. That’s way more impactful than any commercial or any magazine.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.