Pending legislation, now with that cool menthol flavor
Up in Washington, Congress is considering HR 1108, which would give the FDA to regulate additives in cigarettes. This is of particular concern to Greensboro’s hometown tobacco company, Lorillard. From an AP story on the bill:
The House of Representatives could vote before month's end on a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco. If signed into law, the government would gain new power to restrict ingredients used in cigarettes and crack down on advertising directed at children. Currently, additives found in cigarettes, chew and other tobacco products are not regulated by the government.Despite wide support for the effort in Congress, debate over whether and how to restrict use of menthol flavoring is threatening to derail the bill. No company has more at stake in the outcome than Greensboro-based Lorillard, which relies on menthol cigarettes for 90 percent of its sales.
The current bill exempts menthol from an immediate ban applied to other tobacco-masking flavors used in cigarettes, such as orange, strawberry and cherry. Instead the bill gives regulators power to ban or limit menthol at a later date, if they can show scientific evidence it threatens public health.
Click here to read the full story and here for a related story from the NY Times.
Okay, I have the plead ignorance here, having tried exactly one puff of one cigarette in my entire life. For you smokers: does the menthol make that big of a difference? At any rate, this seems to be a measure folks in Greensboro will be keeping watch over.
By the way, the AP story quotes Sen. Richard Burr as saying he'll use his influence to block the measure if at all possible.
Comments (1)
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As a non-smoker, I can't speak to the effect of menthol flavoring. But it seems to me that cigarette makers should be allowed to make their products taste like roast beef or cotton candy if that's what consumers want. Inform people of health risks and then let 'em decide for themselves.
If menthol (or any flavoring) is itself harmful, that's one thing. But it appears that this latest push for regulation is based on the idea that we can't let cigarettes taste too good. And that's weird.
Posted on July 24, 2008 11:08 AM