Coalition to Stop Flavored Tobacco Calls for NYC Council Vote on Menthol Restrictions After E-Cig Vote

"Banning flavored e-cigarettes is only half the job; the Council must also now restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes by the end of year."

NEW (11/26/2019) (readMedia)-- Flavors Hook Kids NYC – a coalition of more than 100 health, religious, parent and community organizations and city leaders – called for the NYC Council today to vote on a widely supported bill to restrict menthol cigarette sales following passage of a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Speaker Corey Johnson has not committed to bringing the menthol legislation up for a vote, despite support from more than two-thirds of the City Council and African-American leaders.

"Today's vote to ban flavored e-cigarettes in New York City addresses one serious threat to our children and communities of color, but fails to address another: menthol cigarettes," said André M. Richardson, Campaign Manager of Flavors Hook Kids NYC. "Nearly nine out of ten black smokers smoke menthol cigarettes because Big Tobacco targeted our communities with an easier-to-addict and harder-to-quit product--and now African Americans in New York face disproportionately negative health outcomes. Banning flavored e-cigarettes is only half the job; the Council must also restrict the sale of menthol by the end of the year."

The City Council voted to pass Intro 1362 (Levine) today, which will ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes starting in July 2020. A bill to restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes (Intro 1345, Cabrera) currently still awaits action in the Council's health committee.

Big Tobacco has aggressively marketed flavored tobacco products to underage users for decades to hook new generations of smokers-particularly in communities of color, where menthol cigarettes are sold to young people, creating disproportionately negative health outcomes for African Americans.

In addition to the local and national organizations now supporting both pieces of legislation, city leaders such as former Mayor David Dinkins, NAACP New York Chapter President Hazel Dukes, NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray and Congressman Gregory Meeks also back the menthol bill. The de Blasio Administration supports both pieces of legislation.

Members of the Flavors Hook Kids NYC coalition include: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, NY NAACP, Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes (PAVe), African American Clergy and Elected Official organization (AACEO), American Cancer Society Action Network (ACS CAN), New York Communities for Change, American Cancer Society Action Network, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council NAATPN, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Neighbors in Action, Last Call Church, United Concerned Citizens, NYPIRG, Bishop Courtenay of Emmanuel Church of God in Brooklyn, Arthur Ashe Institute Public Health, among others.