Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The push continues from local health experts, advocates and other community leaders to end the sale of menthol cigarettes in the City of Buffalo and other communities across Western New York.
A number of local community leaders, health experts, civil rights leaders and advocates gathered on Tuesday at the Health Sciences Charter School in Buffalo to announce the launch of the "No Menthol Buffalo" campaign, which is intended to fight the tobacco industry intentionally marketing and targeting a product when used as intended, it will kill people, particularly in the Black community.
"The tobacco industry has deliberately and intentionally targeted the Black community, in particular Black youth, youth of color," said Stan Martin from Stan Martin Consulting LLC. "We've been working very closely with Mr. [Isaiah] Gary and also other advocates here today, including the faith community, to remove the scourge of tobacco from our community, and also more importantly, as equally importantly, to save lives."
Community leaders and activists are also calling on leaders at all levels to put forth a ban on menthol cigarettes to save the lives of thousands of community members every year.
"We do not want our youth to become the next generation of replacement smokers," Martin said. "We are calling on the Buffalo Common Council and all our elected officials from the county, to the state, to the White House, and right here to do what's morally right. To protect our children, to protect our community, to do what they took an oath to do. To do what we cannot do alone."
In addition, the policy that put forth does not penalize possession of menthol tobacco. It places the onus on the tobacco industry to stop making menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. It also places the onus on the retailers, in terms of the prohibition or the sale of it as well.
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81% of Black Americans smoke use menthol cigarettes, which is up drastically from 10% of Black Americans who smoked menthols in the 1950s before the tobacco industry began to target the African American community. In addition, Black Americans are 6% more likely to be diagnosed with, and 17% more likely to die from tobacco-related cancer. Black men are also 15% more likely to develop, and 18% more likely to die from lung cancer than their White counterparts.
Smoking also directly contributes to the three leading causes of death among African Americans - heart disease, cancer and stroke - and causes over 45,000 African Americans to die each year.
"For too long, the African American community has suffered under an unjust system that has caused great harm to our health. The tobacco industry has been a major contributor to a system that targets our community to entice us to use a product that has no positive health impacts," said Pastor George Nicholas of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church and CEO of Buffalo Center for Health Equity. "The African American community is already plagued with high levels of chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease. The consumption of both menthol cigarettes and other products simply makes it worse.
"In a responsible, free society, it would use its power to help to keep the public safe. A responsible, free society listens to medical experts on the danger of menthol and makes possible that the interest of the public comes first. In a responsible, free society, policymakers will listen to medical experts, social scientists and other affected community leaders when shaping policy. They would not listen to the tobacco industry, who has a vested interest in targeting the Black and Brown community as well as the LGBTQ+ community, and they're targeting it, to be clear, with a product of death."
Maansi Bansal-Travers is a research scientist at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and she has studied the effects of menthol cigarettes, why people smoke these products, and what happens when they are banned. She says a ban on menthol cigarettes will prevent thousands of deaths of New Yorkers.
"Smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable disease and death, preventable disease and death. Smoking claims the lives of over 28,000 New Yorkers each year," said Bansal-Travers on Tuesday. "Tobacco use is associated with heart disease, diabetes, emphysema and, at least, 12 types of cancer. When combined, cancers linked to tobacco use make up 40% of all cancer diagnoses, and cigarette smoking causes 3-in-10 of all cancer deaths."
Bansal-Travers adds that policies to eliminate the sale of menthol cigarettes work by preventing young people from starting, and helping adults to stop smoking.
"Many other cities, states and countries have already eliminated the sale of menthol cigarettes, and we've studied what happens in those places. Our Roswell Park studies show that countries that have adopted menthol cigarette bans sees 30% higher quit rates when implemented," Bansal-Travers detailed. "In the City of Buffalo, we estimate cigarette quit rates will increase by eight percentage points, and over time prevent 734 premature deaths, including 483 premature deaths among residents who are Black."
As the Director of Community and Health Equity at Health Sciences Charter School, Isaiah Gary understands how important it is to educate students, staff and the entire community on menthol cigarettes and why they should be banned. He says cigarettes have had a personal affect on him and some of his family members.
"I think about my Aunt Ruby. When I think about this work, I think about how we would go to the store to grab cigarettes and starch for her, and how over time, she eventually passed away from lung cancer," he said. "It's not as immediate, so sometimes we don't think about it that way. A death from lung cancer or an illness related to smoking cigarettes and menthol is not as immediate as a car crash or a shooting. So we don't necessarily look at it the same way. In reality, though, it's a slow, painful death that you're watching someone who you love experience. And I think about my aunt and watching her take her last breaths, as she couldn't even swallow a piece of ice after she had smoked for years and years."
Cigarette smoking has also taken a personal toll on Rev. Dr. Kinzer Pointer, pastor of Liberty Missionary Baptist Church and leader of No Menthol Buffalo's faith-based initiative. His sister Tina started smoking in middle school, and it eventually cost her her life at way too young of an age.
"I kept smelling this stench on her, and, of course, she vigorously denied that she was smoking, but I kept smelling the stench on her. Fast forward, Tina goes through middle school, gets through high school, gives birth to my nephew, and then at 26 years of age, she had Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer before she was diagnosed. And from the point of diagnosis until I had to stand to bury my sister, my young sister, it was nine days. We can't keep doing that. We can't," said Rev. Pointer.
Pointer is asking residents and other local leaders to recognize that No Menthol Buffalo is an opportunity to do something to change the community at large for the better.
"I'm telling all of the electeds, this is the right thing to do. Let's just do it. And then Buffalo can set an example for the rest of New York State, for our surrounding communities," he said. "And let's make sure that whatever our young people want to be, it's not interdicted by cigarette smoking. Tina was 26 years old. I still miss her immensely."