U.S. Rep. Karen Bass held a press conference at Crenshaw High School in South Los Angeles on May 20, to highlight the damage that corporate tobacco companies have done to Black neighborhoods after decades of targeting them with menthol cigarettes.
The FDA is finally moving a proposed national ban on menthol flavored cigarettes and flavored cigars after more than a decade of inaction and a citizens petition lawsuit brought by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and Action on Smoking and Health, the American Medical Association, and the National Medical Association.
Flavored tobacco products are moving closer to being banned from Los Angeles retailers with efforts led by the L.A. City Councilman Curren Price to protect the health of African Americans.
Reports of illnesses and deaths caused by vaping, many states and health officials have taken a stance on products and the dangers of their consumption. Los Angeles City Council faced the rising issue during a controversial public hearing regarding a city-wide ban of flavored tobacco, menthol cigarettes and hookah.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to expand prohibitions on smoking on county property and in and around bars and restaurants in unincorporated areas, also making clear that smoking includes e-cigarettes and cannabis.
Coming of age in the 1970s, I can still vividly remember seeing Marvin Gaye at the Kool Jazz Festival at the Oakland Coliseum and thinking how wonderful it was that Kool cigarettes were supporting our artists. I was a teenager and didn’t connect that Big Tobacco’s sponsorships, product giveaways, and money were simply part of their master plan to get and keep Black people hooked to menthol cigarettes. It was predatory targeting and customer recruitment all dressed up as support for the Black community. Their ability to link this deadly product to the natural “coolness” of Black people was a true marketing triumph.