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The National African American Tobacco Prevention Network (NAATPN) has withdrawn its support for a bill allowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [11] to regulate tobacco products. The legislation would ban spice, fruit and candy flavorings from cigarettes, but quietly exempted menthol flavoring [12] from regulation. Legislators included the exemption to gain support for the bill from Philip Morris [13], the country's largest cigarette maker. Menthol [14] cigarettes are disproportionately popular among African American smokers; 70 to 75 percent of this group smoke menthols compared to about 30 percent of the general smoking population. African Americans also suffer a disproportionately high share of smoking-related cancers. NAATPN executive director William S. Robinson said that instead of a reasonable explanation for why menthol was excluded from the bill, he received "weak and flimsy" excuses from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids [15], the health group that worked behind the scenes [16] with Philip Morris to create the legislation.
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/5684/anne-landman
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/corporations/corporate-campaigns
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/ethics
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/health
[5] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/human-rights
[6] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/lobbying
[7] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/race-ethnic-issues
[8] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/secrecy
[9] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/tobacco
[10] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2008%2F05%2F7401%2Fciting-menthol-exemption-black-group-pulls-support-fda-tobacco-bill&linkname=Citing%20Menthol%20Exemption%2C%20Black%20Group%20Pulls%20Support%20for%20FDA%20Tobacco%20Bill
[11] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/U.S._Food_and_Drug_Administration
[12] http://www.prwatch.org/node/7328
[13] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Philip_Morris
[14] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Menthol
[15] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/the_Campaign_for_Tobacco-Free_Kids
[16] http://www.tobacco.org/news/178334.html
[17] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/business/30smoke.html