The public health department for Los Angeles County just thanked the FDA for banning menthol cigarettes.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced recently that they are pleased with how the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handled its plan to ban menthol cigarettes from the national market in the coming year.
“Los Angeles County has always been a leader in tobacco control, having led the way in prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products including menthol cigarettes in 2019,” said Hilda L. Solis, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor for the First District.
“For far too long, Big Tobacco destroyed lives, dreams, and futures by shamelessly marketing their deadly products to our most vulnerable groups.”
“To that end, we will continue to fight to ensure that every person’s life and health is valued and protected,” Solis said.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the director of Public Health, also announced that the agency is prepared to cooperate with the FDA to further the tobacco control mission of eliminating other dangerous tobacco and nicotine-containing products from the public market.
“Public Health commends the FDA for taking this historic step toward curbing tobacco industry’s continuing efforts to allure new smokers to a highly addictive and deadly flavored product,” Ferrer said. “The FDA’s actions will bring about meaningful public health gains and advance health equity by working towards reversing the health and financial damage tobacco addiction has caused to generations of people.”
In the year of 2019, Los Angeles County banned the sale of flavored tobacco products in unincorporated areas. If the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on menthol cigarettes is finally implemented, the regulations will compliment the county’s current work to “prohibit all manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers, and retailers from distributing and selling menthol tobacco products.”
The FDA’s menthol ban is still currently in the public comment phase and will enter force by the end of this year.
