Bowing to Big Tobacco

Sunday, June 8, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Proposed federal legislation would ban such cigarette flavorings as strawberry and chocolate but, oddly, would exclude menthol, which is favored by young smokers and minorities.

The exclusion has drawn criticism from seven former federal health secretaries, who sent a letter to members of Congress last week saying that about 80 percent of black teen smokers prefer menthol cigarettes. In their letter they say the exception “caves to the financial interests of tobacco companies and discriminates against African Americans,” and “sends a message that African American youngsters are valued less than white youngsters.”

Joseph A. Califano Jr., who was U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare from 1977 to 1979, told The New York Times the legislation “was clearly putting black children in the back of the bus.”

The legislation calls for giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco and would ban all added fruit, candy and spice flavors except menthol. Critics have said such flavors lure children and youths to smoking.

Still, the proposal has won the support of health advocacy and anti-smoking groups, which say the menthol exclusion is a necessary concession to the tobacco industry and allows the legislation the best chance for passage. Tobacco industry giant Philip Morris has endorsed the bill, which has been passed by committees in the House and Senate but has not been scheduled for a floor vote.

The reason that tobacco companies would support the compromise is clear: Without a new crop of smokers taking up the unhealthy habit each year, profits would be in peril.

But we are mystified as to what well-intentioned lawmakers and anti-smoking activists hope to gain by allowing the most popular flavored cigarette to remain untouched.

Caving in to the tobacco industry by excluding the one flavor that lures 80 percent of an entire demographic of young smokers leaves a very bad taste.