Ban still permits sale of menthol cigarettes

This ban, authorized by the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is part of a national effort by the FDA to reduce smoking in America. The ban on flavored cigarettes is aimed at reducing the number of children who start smoking and become addicted to tobacco products. In fact:
In 2004, 22.8 percent of 17- year-old smokers reported using flavored cigarettes over the past month, as compared to 6.7 percent of smokers over the age of 25.
A poll conducted in March 2008 found that one in five young people between the ages of 12 and 17 had seen flavored tobacco products or ads, while only one in 10 adults reported having seen them.
According to one study of youth smokers between the ages of 13 and 18, 52 percent of smokers who had heard of flavored cigarettes reported interest in trying them, and nearly 60 percent thought that flavored cigarettes would taste better than regular cigarettes.
The statistics, along with the fact the about 90 percent of smokers begin smoking as teenagers, certainly seem to support claims that candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes are just another attempt by the tobacco industry to recruit "replacement smokers," replacing the number of people who quit smoking or die from smoking-related diseases each year with new, young smokers.
The new ban on flavored cigarettes is certainly a step in the right direction; however, for all the good intentions of the FDA, this ban stops short of eliminating the No.1 most prevalent cigarette flavoring in use today: menthol.
Research at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has shown that menthol cigarette smokers take in more nicotine and carbon monoxide per cigarette than regular cigarette smokers, and a recent study at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has shown that menthol smokers find it harder to quit, despite smoking fewer cigarettes per day.
Although I fully support the ban on flavored cigarettes, it is obvious to me that the tobacco industry still has enough influence to continue selling the cigarettes that are the real money makers for them, and that probably have the most influence on our nation's teenagers, menthol.
Hopefully, the ban on menthol cigarettes will be considered in the near future.