CNN
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Greater than half of US adults assist ending the sale of all tobacco merchandise, in accordance with a brand new examine led by researchers from the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, and almost two-thirds mentioned they assist banning menthol cigarette gross sales.
The ballot, printed Thursday within the journal Stopping Power Illness, included 6,455 US adults surveyed in 2021 – earlier than the US Meals and Drug Administration proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
Though cigarette smoking has declined in current many years, it stays the main explanation for preventable illness, incapacity and dying within the US, the place an estimated 30.8 million adults at present smoke.
Help for proposals to ban tobacco gross sales was decrease amongst present tobacco customers, in accordance with the survey. Greater than a 3rd of present people who smoke supported banning menthol cigarette gross sales, and greater than 1 / 4 supported banning all tobacco gross sales.
The FDA continues to be contemplating its proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
“The proposed guidelines would assist forestall youngsters from turning into the subsequent technology of people who smoke and assist grownup people who smoke give up,” Well being and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra mentioned in a press release when the proposal was introduced. “Moreover, the proposed guidelines symbolize an vital step to advance well being fairness by considerably decreasing tobacco-related well being disparities.”
Within the new examine, researchers reported widespread assist for a menthol ban throughout demographic teams.
“Our findings are typically in keeping with earlier analysis displaying assist for menthol cigarette gross sales prohibitions, together with amongst inhabitants teams traditionally focused by unjust advertising and marketing practices and with a excessive prevalence of menthol cigarette use (eg, non-Hispanic Black adults),” they wrote within the examine.
Consultants say menthol – the final taste allowed in cigarettes – makes smoking simpler to start out and more durable to give up. The additive can masks the harshness and irritation of tobacco, making cigarettes extra interesting to younger folks and people who have by no means used tobacco merchandise. It additionally enhances the impact of nicotine within the mind, making tobacco merchandise much more addictive.
Analysis has proven that tobacco merchandise, particularly these with menthol, are disproportionately marketed to youth, racial and ethnic minorities, lower-income folks and people who establish as LGBTQ+, all of whom are extra doubtless to make use of these merchandise and develop tobacco-related well being issues.
“The science is obvious: Menthol cigarettes have an hostile impression on public well being and don’t have any public well being advantages as in comparison with non-menthol cigarettes,” American Coronary heart Affiliation CEO Nancy Brown mentioned in a press release final 12 months. “They improve the probability and diploma of dependancy amongst youth people who smoke, elevating the variety of untimely deaths from tobacco use. Their removing from the market would have huge advantages for public well being on this nation.”
One examine printed in 2021 estimated {that a} menthol cigarette ban within the US would end in a 15% discount in smoking as early as 2026 and as much as 650,000 lives saved inside 40 years.
Many components of the nation have began transferring on this route. As of February 2022, not less than 145 US communities prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and different flavored merchandise. Beverly Hills and Manhattan Seashore, California, had been the primary cities to ban all tobacco gross sales.
The examine authors say public assist can proceed to be an influential issue within the acceleration of coverage adoption.
“These findings can inform federal, state, and native efforts to ban all tobacco product gross sales, together with menthol cigarettes, cut back tobacco use and tobacco-related disparities, and advance well being fairness.”
