Recently, according to TheHill, U.S. government officials and public health leaders met. The meeting was held after the U.S. government decided to postpone the ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes.
The unannounced meeting was not officially on the public agenda, but it follows a meeting last month between government officials and tobacco industry lobbyists - including some former lawmakers - who opposed the proposed proposal. ban. Two weeks later, the White House officially announced that the ban would be delayed until at least March.
Tuesday’s online meeting, sponsored by the Tobacco-Free Teens campaign, included officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra and White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden.
The meeting was organized after public health groups questioned how industry lobbyists were able to meet with senior government officials after the postponement of the ban was announced, according to feedback from those who attended.
Among the public health and civil rights leaders were NAACP President and Center Executive Derrick Johnson, a former U.S. attorney general who worked on disease prevention and control and later became the first person of color in the United States. David Satcher, former HHS Secretary, Louis Sullivan, President of the National Medical Association, Yolanda Lawson, President of the National Medical Association, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Board leader for the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is responsible for regulatory action, will be required to meet with any party interested in the provisions under discussion. These meetings are used to listen and generally do not involve senior officials.
Since October, OMB has held multiple meetings about the policy with outside groups, including retailers, civil rights groups and law enforcement officials. According to records, nearly all of the meetings were with groups opposed to the ban.
Public health groups have been warning that the White House could come under pressure and decide to delay the rule indefinitely, especially as Biden re-campes for president.
In the original plan, the release date of the new regulations was supposed to be in August, but it was later postponed to the end of the year. In its regulatory plan, the White House set a new target date of March 2024.
A ban on menthol cigarettes has been in the works for more than a decade and, if enacted, would be one of the most impactful policies since the FDA began regulating tobacco in 2009. Health departments and tobacco control advocates have said the move could save thousands of lives, especially among black smokers.
About 85 percent of black smokers smoke menthol cigarettes, compared with 30 percent of white smokers, the FDA reports.
But a prominent group of black lawmakers and community members are divided over the ban, which critics claim is indicative of a long-standing industry practice of targeting black communities and aligning with leaders to sow chaos.
