Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - While much has been made about a number of proposals as part of the New York State budget put together by Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration, one proposal continues to get attention as the deadline approaches to finalize the budget.
As part of her budget, Gov. Hochul has included a proposal that would prohibit the sale of menthol and flavored cigarettes across the state. This would make New York the third state in the last four years - Massachusetts (2019) and California (2020) - the pass and implement such a ban.
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However, the proposed ban has been turned down by Democratic state lawmakers in both the Assembly and Senate. This will put the proposal in serious doubt of being included in the state budget deal when it is due to be finalized come April 1.
For Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, she made her intentions known more than a month ago that this proposal would not remain in the state budget.
"One, because it's a policy issue and not necessarily a budget issue. Two, because it's inherently unfair to not just people who are menthol smokers - not that I encourage anybody to do that, but there are people who do that - but it's also disincentive to existing businesses," said Peoples-Stokes when speaking with Joe Beamer on WBEN's "Hardline". "If you can't sell them in New York, that just means somebody goes to Ohio and gets them, or they go to Pennsylvania. By the way, when they get them in Pennsylvania, they'll bring back tons of it and they'll sell it on the streets, and now you're impacting even local businesses. So I think there's a lot more negative to this than there is positive, and it needs a lot more discussion before it will be considered."
In addition, convenience store operators in New York State do not support Gov. Hochul's plan to ban menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. This includes the New York Association of Convenience Stores, led by President Kent Sopris.
"The Governor's tax increase and flavor ban, while intended to lower smoking rates, will actually backfire. It's not going to work," said Sopris during a recent appearance on WBEN. "What this is going to do, is make consumers buy the product somewhere else."
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While backlash of Gov. Hochul's proposed menthol ban is coming from a couple of different angles in Albany, health experts like Dr. Andrew Hyland - Chair of the Department of Health and Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center - believes this initiative from the Governor's office would be a game changer.
"This will save thousands of lives, prevent thousands of premature deaths. Proportionately, even more health benefits to racial ethnic minorities and other traditionally underserved populations," said Dr. Hyland. "Definitely this is an impactful policy."
Cigarette smoking continues to be the No. 1 preventable cause of death not just in New York State and Western New York, but also across the United States, especially with cigarette smoking's tight link to causing lung cancer. Lung cancer is the most potent cancer, killing more than the next three cancers combined.
Dr. Hyland says the good news is the trends are going in the right direction. Cigarette smoking is going down across the board, especially for the youth, but it still remains a massive public health problem.
"In the Western New York region, we see a lot of variability, and especially in the more rural counties surrounding Erie County," Dr. Hyland said. "Cattaraugus, Wyoming, Chautauqua, those outlying counties, we see, generally, higher cigarette smoking rates in those areas. Again, really speaking to the opportunity to try to educate people, make products less appealing, and ultimately trying to help people who are ready to quit smoking to provide them with the tools to do so."
When it comes to menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products differing from a typical cigarette, Dr. Hyland points out a couple of issues that are at play.
"One is that menthol cigarettes have been target marketed to underserved populations for decades, in particular, African-Americans. That's why 80% of African Americans who smoke cigarettes smoke a menthol brand. There's a long documentation of this target marketing, really trying to co-opt African-American culture to promote a deadly and addictive product. There's that industry component, but then just the products themselves, they make the product more appealing," Dr. Hyland explained. "Kids who start with menthol cigarettes are more likely to keep using tobacco, and adults who are using menthol cigarettes have a harder time quitting."
It's not so much that menthol cigarettes have an inherently greater toxicity than a regular cigarette being smoked, but the flavored cigarettes are linked to making smoking more attractive and making it harder to quit smoking.
"The menthol, it sweetens the poison. In essence, it makes a product that's inherently dangerous and addictive easier to use. It makes it more appealing," Dr. Hyland said.
Dr. Hyland and the cancer research teams at Roswell Park have noticed there is more momentum being gained towards states and other levels of government pushing through bans of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.
"My understanding is there are several states right now that are considering similar bans. Even at the federal level, the Food and Drug Administration has a regulation that's under consideration that would follow through with a similar sort of flavored product ban, that includes menthol-flavored cigarettes," Dr. Hyland said. "I think the writing's on the wall that this is the direction that it's going. I think, at its simplest level, if you have a deadly, addictive product, it shouldn't be appealing. It shouldn't come in attractive flavors, and that's what we see with menthol cigarettes."
Dr. Hyland also acknowledges the research they've done looking into Canada's banning of menthol cigarettes and its effects on citizens across the border.
"What we saw there is the cigarette quit rates increase by about 30%," he said. "You can fix that problem with menthol cigarettes being tougher to quit by eliminating that, and you'll see the health benefits by more people quitting and having improved health outcomes."
One view Dr. Hyland has expressed a number of times in the past is "anything that creates more dialogue and more conversation about the dangers of cigarette smoking, it will benefit public health." While there's more to the issue than just menthol cigarettes, he feels that potentially starting there may be a way for more people to quit smoking all together, leading to overall improved health.
"There are other educational campaigns that the state or other voluntary agencies run," Dr. Hyland said. "I'll try to educate people, educate young people not to start. Adult cigarette smokers, when they're ready to quit, there's resources for people to engage in, such as the New York State Smokers Quit Line, which is a service that New York State runs free for everyone. We run that service here out of Roswell Park for people in New York State, and they can go to the website - NYSmokeFree.com - or give us a call - 1-866-NY-QUITS. That's really where things are going. Anything that's a dialogue about the dangers of tobacco use ultimately, I think, will have benefits for public health."
So what is Dr. Hyland's message for those who may look at this menthol proposal and feel that it should not be allowed to be pushed through the state budget this year? He advises those people to take a look at the health impacts that cigarette smoking continues to have on residents across the state.
"Come to a place like Roswell Park and take a look at the thoracic ward people coming in," he said. "I know I just lost my mother this year to lung cancer, and it's tough. There's a lot of disease out there. Just think, again, lung cancer kills more than the next three cancers combined, and we know what causes it. Things that are addressable, able to fix, [we need] to take a look at those health issues. Certainly there are other arguments and other stakeholders, and those absolutely should be part of the conversation. Ultimately, I think it's up to our elected officials to weigh the pros and cons - looking at getting the next generation hooked with appealing flavors, and making it harder for adults to quit versus some of the other arguments that are out there."