The Biden administration is delaying a decision on whether to ban menthol flavored cigarettes amid intense lobbying from critics including the tobacco industry, industry-backed groups and some Black criminal justice advocates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The delay is alarming public health groups, which fear that the White House could cave to pressure and delay the rule indefinitely, especially against the backdrop of President Biden\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>reelection bid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The target date for releasing the rule was initially August, which was then pushed back to the end of the year. The White House in its regulatory agenda released Wednesday set a new target for March 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAny delay in finalizing the FDA\u2019s [Food and Drug Administration\u2019s] menthol rule would be a gift to the tobacco industry at the expense of Black lives,\u201d said Yolanda Richardson, CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. \u201cWe urge the administration to keep its promise and issue a final rule by the end of this year.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Obama administration solicited comments for potential regulation of menthol cigarettes in 2013, but it never proposed a rule. Then, in 2018, the Trump administration revisited the issue under former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Trump\u2019s FDA also failed to issue a formal rule. So when the Biden administration\u2019s April 2022 proposals for a ban on menthol and flavored cigars were released, they represented a significant step forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Public health groups said based on past history, they\u2019re worried the delay will go beyond March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were expecting to see final rules in August this year. It\u2019s now December. And so an additional delay to March certainly begs the question, how much longer are we gonna have to wait? How many times are we going to punt this?\u201d asked Emily Holubowich, national senior vice president of federal advocacy at the American Heart Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe science is clear. The rules need to be released now,\u201d Holubowich said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The FDA said it remained committed to issuing the rule \u201cas expeditiously as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt this stage in rulemaking, the FDA is limited from further discussions about the rules before they are published,\u201d an agency spokesman said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A menthol ban has been more than a decade in the making and would be one of the most consequential policies from the FDA since it began regulating tobacco in 2009. Health officials and tobacco control advocates have said such a move could save hundreds of thousands of lives, particularly among Black smokers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An estimated 85 percent of Black smokers use menthols, according to the FDA, compared with 30 percent of white smokers. About 40 percent of excess deaths due to menthol cigarette smoking in the U.S. between 1980 and 2018 were among African Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n David Margolius, director of public health for Cleveland, said the delays in issuing the ban have left him frustrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat it says to us is that cities like Cleveland are being left behind,\u201d Margolius said, adding that the city\u2019s smoking rate is 35 percent. The national average is around 11 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery month that they kick the can down the road, more lives are lost in places like Cleveland. The right time to do this was as many years ago as possible. We\u2019ve got to right the wrongs of the past. And so pushing this further along, that doesn\u2019t help anybody,\u201d Margoulis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House has been reviewing the ban since October, typically the final step before the rules get released. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the White House Office of Management and Budget has been holding dozens of meetings with outside groups about the policy since October, including retailers, civil rights groups and law enforcement officials. According to records, almost all the meetings have been with groups that oppose the ban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Representatives from Rev. Al Sharpton\u2019s National Action Network along with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, tobacco companies, former lawmakers and leaders of a Black law enforcement group attended a Nov. 20 meeting<\/u><\/a> with senior Biden administration officials \u2014 including FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and White House domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden \u2014 to lobby against the ban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n