Eighty national public health groups, including the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Preventative Medicine, placed a full-page ad in Sunday’s edition of the Washington Post in support of a federal ban on menthol in cigarettes and all flavored cigars.

“The answer is clear,” the full-page ad says. “Saving lives starts by ending the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars.

“Smoking kills nearly half a million people in the United States each year, and these addictive, deadly products are a big part of the problem. The FDA and White House have our full support to release lifesaving rules prohibiting menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars.”

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Menthol and other flavoured cigarettes were banned in the EU years ago, and I don’t recall much of a fuss, not sure why this would be an issue in the US.

          My experience was that long time smokers weren’t the ones smoking menthol and other weird stuff, it was mostly kids that didn’t like tobacco.

            • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yep, I know. Which is why I pointed to the example that is actually relevant, as the EU passed this exact law years ago.

              But I don’t suppose you troubled yourself with that, and I get it. Going down that road might actually force you to reconsider your perspective at some point, or alternatively, deal with a massive and inconvenient cognitive dissonance, so instead you chose the safe path and stick to your cautionary tale because it validates your reasoning, if we just ignore for a moment the fact that it’s irrelevant regarding this specific instance and a better source was available to educate us about the effects of this legislation.

              • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Yeah, I don’t know what has your panties in such a twist, but I also don’t really care enough about you or menthol cigarettes to be a part of it, so you’ll have to pick a fight with someone else.

                I was just making a joke about America’s history of banning things people like.

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      You do have a point but the danger is far higher on the tabaco side. Priorities and such, we won’t see anything like that for quite some time.

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        1 year ago

        Is it though? I’m pretty sure alcohol is the most destructive legal drug there is. But prohibition didn’t go so great last time so don’t take that as a call to start banning sweet alcohol, I just disagree with the assertion that tobacco is worse.

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            1 year ago

            And I disagree. I’ve been around a lot of barely functioning alcoholics in my life. But this isn’t me arguing that you’re flat out wrong, just questioning it because it doesn’t line up with my experience.

            • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              And yet someone with real data posted something that says that tobacco actually causes more deaths. I presume that yours was the one downvote.

              • MagicShel@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                Nah. I rarely downvote unless someone says something exceptionally stupid. I might argue that deaths is a narrow way to measure, but it’s certainly valid and facts are facts. I’m glad that was posted.

                • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  For the record I’m not attempting to disagree with you. When you add in the collateral toll that alcohol takes, its impact may indeed be greater than tobacco. I was referring specifically to the toxicity of cigarettes. Although there is likely a safe amount of alcohol you can consume, there is no safe level of smoking you can take on. My comments have been confined specifically to this area.

      • freeindv@monyet.cc
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        1 year ago

        The real priority is to work to eliminate the power of public health to dictate private life choices.