Center for Tobacco Products News

By Molly Peterson

March 31 (Bloomberg) — Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked tobacco companies to provide data on how they make and market menthol cigarettes, a step toward helping the agency decide whether to ban them.

The FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee requested the information today after saying decades’ worth of data is mixed on whether the minty flavor lures young people to start smoking or makes it hard to quit. Cigarette makers led by Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA should present marketing data when the committee meets again within the next six months, panelists said.

WASHINGTON — For the cigarette industry, the menthol debate is about to flare up again. The new federal advisory board for tobacco regulation was to meet for the first time yesterday in Washington. Topping the agenda, one of the most contentious, and racially charged, health issues that Congress deferred last year when it empowered the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco for the first time, according to a report in the New York Times.

The question: What to do about menthol flavorings in cigarettes, which account for almost a third of the nation’s $70 billion cigarette market?