In our nation’s capital today, hearings are taking place on whether the FDA should ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes. In an especially timely editorial on the subject in the The Daily Caller, ACSH Medical Director Dr. Gilbert Ross notes that “no toxicity is specifically attributed to menthol.” It’s not the smoking of menthol cigarettes, he says, that is the problem, but the smoking of cigarettes per se. He also points out that banning menthol would likely lead to a vast and unaccountable black market in illicit menthol smokes, without an attendant gain for public health.
