US Food and Drug Administration Action on Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars—A Pivotal Moment for Health Equity
Menée aux Etats-Unis à l'aide de données 2013-2019 portant sur 1 096 jeunes fumeurs de cigarettes (âge : 12-17 ans), cette étude analyse l'association entre la consommation de cigarettes mentholées et la fréquence du tabagisme ou la dépendance à la nicotine
In over a decade since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gained regulatory authority over cigarettes, menthol cigarettes have eluded regulation. The most recent year of Federal Trade Commission cigarette sales data (2020) boasted the first increase in cigarette consumption in 20 years and the continued increase in menthol sales, comprising 37% of the cigarette market. In addition to changes in the market, new evidence has continued to underscore the potential public health benefit of banning menthol cigarettes, including rigorous studies like that of Leas et al, whose findings harness statistical methods designed to improve causal inference from observational studies. Like studies conducted in other cohorts, Leas et al provide strong evidence that menthol cigarettes are associated with smoking uptake, progression to regular use, and nicotine dependence in youth. The magnitude of these findings, their consistency across samples and over time, and their coherence with the underlying physiological effects of menthol support that removing menthol from cigarettes is likely to benefit public health, especially as it relates to reducing youth smoking initiation.