It has taken eight years, but a citizen petition filed by the Public Health Law Center and partners will finally get a response from the FDA. The petition, filed in 2013, calls on the FDA to prohibit menthol in cigarettes. It was filed in response to an independent FDA study that concluded that there is “overwhelming scientific evidence” showing the catastrophic health effects of menthol. Since the FDA’s 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products, the Center says the agency has been “collecting additional information rather than acting.” The Public Health Law Center and its partners say the only appropriate FDA response to the petition is to “immediately initiate a rulemaking to prohibit menthol cigarettes.”
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