Mahaz News
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More than half of US adults help ending the sale of all tobacco merchandise, based on a brand new research led by researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and almost two-thirds stated they help banning menthol cigarette gross sales.
The ballot, printed Thursday within the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, included 6,455 US adults surveyed in 2021 – earlier than the US Food and Drug Administration proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
Although cigarette smoking has declined in current many years, it stays the main reason for preventable illness, incapacity and dying within the US, the place an estimated 30.8 million adults at the moment smoke.
Support for proposals to ban tobacco gross sales was decrease amongst present tobacco customers, based on the survey. More than a 3rd of present people who smoke supported banning menthol cigarette gross sales, and greater than 1 / 4 supported banning all tobacco gross sales.
The FDA remains to be contemplating its proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
“The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stated in an announcement when the proposal was introduced. “Additionally, the proposed rules represent an important step to advance health equity by significantly reducing tobacco-related health disparities.”
In the brand new research, researchers reported widespread help for a menthol ban throughout demographic teams.
“Our findings are generally consistent with previous research showing support for menthol cigarette sales prohibitions, including among population groups historically targeted by unjust marketing practices and with a high prevalence of menthol cigarette use (eg, non-Hispanic Black adults),” they wrote within the research.
Experts say menthol – the final taste allowed in cigarettes – makes smoking simpler to begin and more durable to stop. The additive can masks the harshness and irritation of tobacco, making cigarettes extra interesting to younger folks and people who have by no means used tobacco merchandise. It additionally enhances the impact of nicotine within the mind, making tobacco merchandise much more addictive.
Research has proven that tobacco merchandise, particularly these with menthol, are disproportionately marketed to youth, racial and ethnic minorities, lower-income folks and people who establish as LGBTQ+, all of whom are extra seemingly to make use of these merchandise and develop tobacco-related well being issues.
“The science is clear: Menthol cigarettes have an adverse impact on public health and have no public health benefits as compared to non-menthol cigarettes,” American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown stated in an announcement final yr. “They increase the likelihood and degree of addiction among youth smokers, elevating the number of premature deaths from tobacco use. Their removal from the market would have enormous benefits for public health in this country.”
One research printed in 2021 estimated {that a} menthol cigarette ban within the US would end in a 15% discount in smoking as early as 2026 and as much as 650,000 lives saved inside 40 years.
Many components of the nation have began shifting on this path. As of February 2022, not less than 145 US communities prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and different flavored merchandise. Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, California, have been the primary cities to ban all tobacco gross sales.
The research authors say public help can proceed to be an influential issue within the acceleration of coverage adoption.
“These findings can inform federal, state, and local efforts to prohibit all tobacco product sales, including menthol cigarettes, reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related disparities, and advance health equity.”
Source web site: www.cnn.com
