BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., is pushing for a ban on menthol cigarettes, arguing that tobacco companies disproportionately target blacks when they market and promote the cigarettes.
Markey is leading a group of senators in calling on the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit the cigarettes, noting that blacks suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related mortality of any ethnic or racial group in the U.S.
The letter to the FDA sent last week was also signed by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
The letter notes that in 2011, the FDA conducted a scientific review that concluded “menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk above that seen with non-menthol cigarettes.”