July 26, 2022 3:00 a.m.

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have joined Senate colleagues to express support for the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rules that would ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars.

A release said menthol numbs the throat and mitigates the harshness of tobacco smoke, making menthol cigarettes more appealing for youth and people beginning to smoke.

The letter to FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf from the group of senators said, “By increasing youth smoking and making cessation more difficult, menthol cigarettes have magnified the public health harms of smoking. Between 1980 and 2018, menthol cigarettes were responsible for 10.1 million additional smokers and 378,000 premature deaths in the United States”. The letter continued, “We applaud FDA for issuing these proposed rules and are pleased to see the agency using the regulatory authority that Congress gave it to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco products”.

The senators urged the FDA to move promptly to consider public comments, finalize the rule, and implement it so that “…these life saving requirements can take effect as soon as possible”.

The letter was signed by a total of eighteen senators. The text of the letter is linked: https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_from_senators_-_fda_comment_on_menthol_proposed_rules.pdf