WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s administration is indefinitely delaying a long-awaited ban on menthol cigarettes, a decision that has infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avert a political backlash from Black voters in November.
In a statement released Friday, Biden’s top health official gave no timeline for issuing the rule, saying only that the administration would take more time to consider feedback, including from civil rights groups.
“It’s clear there are still more conversations to have, and it will take much longer,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
The White House has held dozens of meetings in recent months with groups opposing the ban, including civil rights organizers, law enforcement officials and small business owners. Most groups have financial ties to tobacco companies.
The announcement is another setback for Food and Drug Administration officials, who wrote the ban and predicted it would prevent hundreds of thousands of smoking-related deaths over 40 years. The agency has worked to ban menthol across multiple administrations, without ever finalizing a rule.
“This decision prioritizes politics over lives, especially Black lives,” Yolonda Richardson of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said in an emailed statement. “It is especially disturbing to see the administration repeat the tobacco industry’s false claims about support from the civil rights community.”
Richardson noted that the ban is supported by groups such as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus.
The FDA’s previous efforts on menthol have been hampered by resistance from the tobacco industry or competing political priorities. With Biden and former President Donald Trump competing for the support of black voters, the potential impact of the ban has been scrutinized by Republicans and Democrats preparing for the fall elections.
Anti-smoking advocates have been pushing the FDA to eliminate the flavor since the agency gained authority to regulate certain tobacco ingredients in 2009. Menthol is the only cigarette flavor not banned under that law, an exclusion negotiated by industry allies in the Congress. But the law instructed the FDA to continue studying the issue.
More than 11% of American adults smoke, with rates approximately equal among whites and blacks. But about 80 percent of black smokers smoke menthol, which the FDA says masks the harshness of smoking, making it easier to start and harder to quit. Furthermore, most teenagers who smoke cigarettes prefer menthol.
For decades, tobacco companies have focused menthol advertising and promotions on black communities, sponsoring music festivals and neighborhood events. Industry documents released through litigation also show that companies viewed menthol cigarettes as a good “starter product” because they were more palatable to teenagers.
The FDA released its draft of the proposed ban in 2022. Officials under Biden initially aimed last August to finalize the rule. Late last year, White House officials said it would take until March to review the measure. When that deadline expired last month, several anti-smoking groups took legal action to force its release.
“We are disappointed by the action of the Biden administration, which has given in to the scare tactics of the tobacco industry,” said Dr. Mark Mitchell of the National Medical Association, a group of African-American doctors that is suing the administration.
Separately, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders warned that a menthol ban would create an illegal market for cigarettes in black communities and provoke more clashes with police.
The FDA and health advocates have long dismissed such concerns, noting that the FDA’s enforcement of the rule would only apply to companies that make or sell cigarettes, not individuals.
An FDA spokesperson said Friday that the agency is still committed to banning menthol cigarettes.
“As we have made clear, these product standards remain at the top of our priorities,” Jim McKinney said in a statement.
Smoking can cause cancer, strokes and heart attacks and is responsible for 480,000 deaths every year in the US, including 45,000 among black Americans.
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