Prohibiting Menthol in Cigarettes

ACS CAN supports prohibiting menthol flavor in tobacco products as part of a comprehensive flavor ban.  Support of this ban included filing a citizens' petition at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with other health groups in 2013, and supplementing that petition with updated scientific data in January of 2021.  The African American Tobacco Leadership Council and other groups used this petition as the basis for a lawsuit against the agency filed in June of 2020.  In response to the lawsuit, FDA announced in April of 2020 that it would grant the petition and begin a rulemaking to prohibit menthol.  ACS CAN filed an amicus brief in the case of African American Tobacco Leadership Council v Dept. of Health and Human Services supporting public health groups' lawsuit against HHS and FDA in order to force FDA to prohibit menthol flavor in combustible cigarettes. 

FDA issued a draft rule in 2022, but never finalized that rule.  Plaintiffs renewed their lawsuit in 2024.  ACS CAN and other tobacco control groups filed an amicus brief in late November, 2024