Menthol on Today's FDA Docket

The new federal advisory board for tobacco regulation meets for the first time today in Washington, DC, to decide what to do about menthol flavorings in cigarettes, which account for almost a third of the nation’s $70 billion cigarette market. Under the law, the F.D.A. is to issue a report on menthol next year and take action by 2012. “We’ve spent a lot of time working on the dangers of smoking, but now we’re going to be taking a somewhat different approach,” said Dr. Jonathan Samet, chairman of the advisory panel. “We’ll be trying to understand what it is in the products that harm people and what changes can be made.”

Half of long-term smokers eventually die of smoking-related causes, according to the  World Health Organization. If the FDA has any sense, it would encourage marketers to educate smokers about smokeless tobacco, which has been shown to be 98% safer than cigarettes and an effective smoking cessation aid.