GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Menthol cigarette sales make up 36 percent of all cigarette purchases, and there's now a national and local push to take these tobacco products off the market for good.
The FDA is proposing a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, and local health educators and advocates believe this move can make a major impact in West Michigan, because if someone's go-to product is gone, that could mean taking steps to quit smoking.
And they say it could keep fewer young people from trying smoking in the first place.
"It's easier to start and its harder to quit," Spectrum Health Clinical Program Specialist Libby Stern says.
Stern leads smoking cessation classes through Lifestyle Medicine at Spectrum Health, and she says she was excited to hear this news from the FDA.
"(In) 2009 I believe, those flavored tobacco products were removed off the market, but the exception to that was menthol," she says.
"What it does is creates a numbing and cooling effect to the smoke so it can be more easily inhaled, and it's just easier to start smoking and to continue smoking," Stern says. "It makes it easier to inhale deeply so more of the lung is affected by the smoke."
More than half of the teenagers who smoke use menthol cigarettes, and the majority of teen smokers say they started with menthol cigarettes. Stern compares menthol and flavored cigars to flavored vapes, which were banned a few years ago.
"To eliminate (menthol cigarettes) really kind of lowers the likelihood of youth experimentation," she says. "If you don't experiment, you wont get addicted. If you don't get addicted, you won't continue to use them. What that'll do is prevent, going forward, death and preventable disease."
Tobacco companies are known for highly marketing these products in communities of color.
"I think this will play a major role in reducing health disparities in the community, but especially African-Americans as 86 percent of African-American smokers use menthol products," Grand Rapids Urban League Program Manager Kenneth Ly says.
He says this proposed ban from the FDA is long overdue. His organization has recently started a group, the West Michigan Health Equity Coalition, to fight for a ban like this in Grand Rapids.
"What we're looking for is a city champion to help us go to the city and help us enact this ban, propose it to the city to prevent the sale of these products," he says.
The FDA's rule would take effect one year after the final version of this ban is published. That's not expected for at least a few months.
It is expected to be met with lawsuits from tobacco companies, like for legislation in the past.
Spectrum Health offers free smoking cessation classes. You don't have to be a patient at Spectrum Health to register for these virtual classes.
To find out more about the Grand Rapids Urban League's new coalition, you can reach out here.
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