The Trump administration withdrew a The proposed rule From the American Food and Drug Administration that would have been prohibited from menthol cigarettes.
The proposed rule, which has been under implementation since mid -2022, It was included as “withdrawn” As of January 21 on the website of the management and budget office (OMB). The approval of the administration and budget office is one of the recent steps before issuing the final rule.
When the base was initially announced, the HHS Xavier BECERRA minister said in a statement that the base “will help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers to quit smoking. In addition, the proposed base is [rule represents] It is an important step to enhance health justice by significantly reducing the health differences associated with tobacco.
But the Biden administration has recently delayed the final base several times, saying it would be published in August 2023, then it postponed that date until the end of the year, then it said it would be published in March 2024. When asked about the delay, the spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration He said in an email in January 2024 The agency “remains committed to issuing the standards of the tobacco products for menthol in cigarettes and the connection of flavors in the cigar as quickly Our priority is. “
Ministry of Health and Human Services The base was delayed again in April 2024. “This rule has received historical attention and the general suspension period resulted in a huge amount of reactions, including various elements of the movement of civil rights and criminal justice,” Pesira. He said in a very brief statement It was published on April 26 on HHS. “It is clear that there are still more conversations that have to be taken, and this will take much longer.”
One of the possible reasons that the previously delayed observers suggested is that the Biden administration may have been afraid that the issuance of al -Qaeda would alienate black voters before the presidential elections. But even after the elections, the base did not move forward.
When asked via e -mail in late November 2024 to comment on the progress made at the base, a FDA spokesman (FDA) pointed out. MedPage today to Video clip of the interview It was presented by the then Food and Drug Administration, Robert Calif at the annual meeting of cancer research friends last week. When asked about what he wants to achieve in the last few months of his work as a food and medicine commissioner, Calif replied: “The most important thing for public health is tobacco and food. There are main things that we hope to accomplish. It is known that the base of the menthol was a problem.”
A spokesman for the US Food and Drug Administration said that unlike the video, the agency.[doesn’t] You have any additional updates at this time. “
It criticized a campaign for children without smoking the Trump administration decision. The organization said: “It is very disappointing that the American Food and Drug Administration base by banning Methil’s cigarettes has not been completed in time and has now been withdrawn.” Say in a tweet. “We strongly support the elimination of Mathol cigarettes to end the predatory marketing of these deadly products for decades by the tobacco industry for children, black Americans and other societies. We will continue to build support to eliminate Mathol’s cigarettes at the national level. Meanwhile, it is more important than any time The states and cities have been intensifying their efforts to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. “
The action taken by the Trump administration is not surprising, according to Erika Souder, the assistant vice president for the national level at the American Lung Association (ALA). She said in an interview on the phone: “It is customary at the beginning of a new presidential administration that all the rules that are to be returned to agencies are applied,” she said in an interview on the phone. “The ALA Association” is still disappointed because President Biden did not put the finishing touches on these two bases – the base of the Methol cigarette and the base of banning the scrub cigar – when he had the opportunity. You will lose lives because of this. “
