John, Today is No Menthol Sunday. Led annually by our partners at The Center for Black Health & Equity, No Menthol Sunday is a faith-based observance that raises awareness about how Big Tobacco targets Black communities with menthol cigarettes – and the devastating health consequences. This year, it couldn't come at a more critical time, as the FDA just issued a proposed rule to eliminate menthol cigarettes. Help raise awareness today by reading and sharing this powerful New York Times essay by Princeton University Professor Keith Wailoo, author of Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette: |
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 How the Tobacco Industry Hooked Black Smokers on Menthols By Keith Wailoo | May 11, 2022  "From the start, the marketing of menthol cigarettes, targeted at Black people over the past half-century, was built on an underlying, deeply cynical deception: They were healthy and restorative...
The story of Big Tobacco and menthol is a rolling tragedy where the violence occurs off camera. It is a slower extraction of health and wealth, playing out not over minutes but decades and generations. But make no mistake, menthol cigarette smoking often leads to decimated lungs, emphysema, cancer and a range of other ailments, ending too often in a tragic plea for air..." Continue reading >> |
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Then, find more resources to participate at nomentholsunday.org, and add to the #NoMentholSunday Power Wall. Why is it so important that we speak out today? - For over 60 years, the tobacco industry has targeted Black communities – especially kids – with marketing for menthol cigarettes. In the 1950s, less than 10% of Black smokers used menthol cigarettes. Today, it’s 85%.
- Tobacco use is the #1 cause of preventable death among Black Americans, claiming 45,000 Black lives each year.
- Largely because of more addictive menthol cigarettes, Black smokers have a harder time quitting and die at higher rates from tobacco-related diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke.
Eliminating menthol cigarettes will protect kids, advance health equity and save lives. We must support the FDA's move to eliminate these insidious products. Spread the word today for No Menthol Sunday. Thanks for your advocacy, |
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