Medical and Civil Rights Groups Sue FDA Over Missing Deadline to Ban Menthol Cigarettes

A coalition of medical and civil rights groups said Tuesday they are suing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over missing its own deadline to ban menthol tobacco products, CNN reports.

The groups include the National Medical Association, the nation’s oldest group representing Black physicians. “This is profits over people, and we are just really asking on behalf of the national associations that people are put first,” the group’s president, Dr. Yolanda Lawson, said at a news conference. The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and Action on Smoking and Health are also part of the lawsuit.

When the FDA announced in April 2022 a plan to ban sales of menthol flavored cigarettes in the United States, many public health experts said it would be the government’s most meaningful action in more than a decade of tobacco control efforts. The New York Times said the ban would most likely have the greatest impact on Black smokers, nearly 85% of whom use menthol cigarettes, compared with 29% of white smokers.