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.”
Tobacco is fucking horrible, but Menthol and other flavorings make it so much worse. They increase the likelihood of addiction massively.
And is always the case in public health, you don’t put in rules to cater to the edge cases, you put in rules to protect the majority affected.
Because Prohibition worked out so well they first time. But yes, let’s learn that lesson again, it’s not like we haven’t been having it reinforced over the last half-century with the War Ear Drugs.
But this time it will be different, right?
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I can tell that you’re addicted just by the vitriol in your response here.
Did you start of menthols and other flavored tobacco? Because that’s how a lot of people start. Which is why people are pushing for a ban, so others won’t be as hopelessly addicted as you are.
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We should do that, without question. Marketing candy to children as part of a balanced breakfast should be a crime.
Your last sentence, dude. 🤣 Way to ruin your credibility.
Are you suggesting that bad eating habits cause type 1 diabetes?
Wow, denying that tobacco causes cancer is a level of delusion that I had thought died out with the 5th or 6th Marlboro Man (who all died of cancer).
Do you want to know one of the causes of cancer from Tobacco? It might surprise you.
But you’ll ignore this because you’re hopelessly addicted to nicotine, one of the single most addictive chemicals known.
You try to deflect with whataboutisms, but guess what? People are trying to solve those health problems as well. You’re just pissed that they’re trying to solve one that affects your personal addiction.
In places where healthcare is vaguely civilized, your unhealthy addiction becomes my business because it comes with negative social externalities in the form of additional cost and strain on a public health service.
Edit: Spelling
This is an article and discussion specifically about a federal ban in the US. So, unless you live here, it’s not your business.
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That’s not even getting into the possible “fun suprises” we’ll have from all of the microplastics in our bodies.
Should we ban junk food then? How about a fat tax? I’d wager obesity is a far bigger strain on the healthcare system than smoking is.
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That’s what you get from government run healthcare
Exactly why I’m so strongly against government run healthcare
I personally was addicted before I ever had even a single puff, and plenty of others started the same way I did. I took a job to earn spending money as a 13 y/o kid cause I wanted Secret of Mana and that was a $60 or $70 game. So I went down the road to the nearest tobacco farm, and started stripping tobacco for $4.25 an hour. I left each 4 hour shift with about ½cm of black tar completely coating the palms and fingers of my hands. After two weeks cigarettes smelled good. I’m far from alone in this experience. So, no. Menthol and flavorings actually cause me to turn down cigarettes, I like the taste of tobacco.
You’re just being ignorant and holier than thou.
Do a lot of teens work on tobacco farms for their first exposure to nicotine? No, that was just you?
I mean, you also bring up the specter of unsafe child labor. That’s something else that we need to tackle, but we can also ban flavorings that make the tobacco more addictive to those who didn’t spend their childhood harvesting tobacco.
Yes. Of my graduating class of 300, about 100 of us worked on the tobacco farms. In tobacco country this is a very common way for teens to make money. Note, I was working because I chose to. That doesn’t fall under child labor. I’m sure some of the other teens were working because they had to.
You were a child who was working. That’s child labor. Full stop.
You also were exposed to harmful chemicals. Even if you “wanted” to be there, you should not have been.
So you worked, got a video game, and a lifelong addiction. And you think that was a good thing?
But it still doesn’t matter. Yours is an edge case. This proposed ban on flavorings for tobacco is meant to help prevent thousands from getting addicted in the first place.
Here’s how it works. A given teen will, at some point, try a cigarette. If it’s flavored, they are statistically more likely to try a second. If you ban flavorings, then that second cigarette will be less likely.
We know that nicotine is more addictive than pretty much any other chemical out there, but it’s not instantly addictive. The goal is to make smoking as unpleasant as possible. Which will also save the lives of some people who are currently addicted.
Nah, teen usage has been down for the last decade. This measure is nothing more than a red herring. Wanna actually protect our children? Pass universal healthcare or ban guns.
You’re still being willfully ignorant and holier than thou.
Nice whataboutism.
But we can do both.
I personally say ban tobacco completely, because it’s still the single largest cause of medical issues in the US.
Cancer, COPD, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Stokes, etc. All diseases that smokers get at extremely elevated rates. Hell, currently, one out of every five deaths in the US are linked to cigarette use.
But sure, gun control. It’s a good idea, but it wouldn’t do anything about 20% of all deaths each year.
Anyway, teens are most likely to start smoking via menthols or flavored tobacco. Which is why we should ban them. Because if you can drive that 20% number down, you should.
my sibling in christ. where are you getting this stuff? you sound like you’re parroting something you were told but have little actual scientific or experiential understanding.
Why are there so many people who are pro-lung cancer in this thread?
Do people just not like breathing?
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We need to ban public health