Andrew Cheyne, Lori Dorfman, and Pamela Mejia are with Berkeley Media Studies Group, Public Health Institute, Berkeley, CA. Richard A. Daynard is with Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, MA. Mark Gottlieb is with Public Health Advocacy Institute, Boston, MA.
Am J Public Health. 2014 Jul;104(7):e54-61. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302025. Epub 2014 May 15.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act exempted menthol from a flavoring additive ban, tasking the Tobacco Products Safety Advisory Committee to advise on the scientific evidence on menthol. To inform future tobacco control efforts, we examined the public debate from 2008 to 2011 over the exemption. Health advocates regularly warned of menthol's public health damages, but inconsistently invoked the health disparities borne by African American smokers. Tobacco industry spokespeople insisted that making menthol available put them on the side of African Americans' struggle for justice and enlisted civil rights groups to help them make that case. In future debates, public health must prioritize and invest in the leadership of communities most affected by health harms to ensure a strong, unrelenting voice in support of health equity.
《家庭吸烟预防和烟草控制法案》将薄荷醇从调味添加剂禁令中豁免，责成烟草产品安全咨询委员会就薄荷醇的科学证据提供咨询意见。为了为未来的烟草控制工作提供信息，我们研究了 2008 年至 2011 年期间关于豁免的公开辩论。健康倡导者经常警告薄荷醇对公共健康的危害，但不一致地援引了非裔美国吸烟者所承受的健康差异。烟草业发言人坚称，提供薄荷醇使他们站在了非裔美国人争取正义的一边，并争取民权组织帮助他们提出这一观点。在未来的辩论中，公共卫生必须优先考虑并投资于受健康危害影响最大的社区的领导，以确保在支持健康公平方面有一个强有力、不屈不挠的声音。
