FDA looks to ban menthol cigarettes after studies show uptick in youth smoking
(KMSP) - The head of the FDA says the agency wants to ban menthol cigarettes and tobacco products, but what’s driving the proposed ban is new data from teenagers themselves that show youth smoking is way up.
As smoking rates among adults have dropped in recent years, new data from the FDA shows teen rates have jumped.
The new National Youth Tobacco survey shows 27 percent of high school students now use tobacco or e-cigarettes.
Separating out e-cigarettes alone, more than three million high school students say they are currently vaping. That’s an increase of 78 percent in just one year.
It mirrors what the Minnesota Department of Health is seeing here.
“So we’re not really surprised to see it go up,” said Laura Smith, of Clearway Minnesota. “So that data from here in Minnesota showed that about one in five high schoolers is using e-cigarettes and almost 40 percent of high schoolers have tried e-cigarettes. And so that’s really concerning to us.”
The new trend is driven by e-cigarette products such as Juul, which is why the FDA today is proposing new rules that flavored e-cigarettes can only be sold in age-restricted stores.
Anti-smoking advocates say these products are no different than traditional cigarettes.
“A lot of e-cigarettes deliver nicotine which we know can be harmful to a developing brain and can open the door to a lifetime of addiction,” said Emily Myatt of the American Cancer Society.
Additionally, the FDA wants to crack down on menthol cigarettes, too. It says more than half of teen smokers use menthol tobacco. That’s why it announced new proposed rules to completely ban menthol flavored products.
“It can both attack teen smoking and stop the start of teens smoking and also alleviate these disparities and help people quit,” Smith said.
It could take years to implement the menthol ban. In addition, the head of the FDA says it will require heightened age verification standards for all online sales of flavored e-cigarette and tobacco products.