Wisconsin’s campaign to educate the dangers of menthol cigarettes

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services is launching digital education and outreach highlighting the dangers of menthol cigarettes. Wisconsin’s campaign is looking at how commercial tobacco companies are using targeted marketing on certain communities.

Paul Tran is a State Health Officer with the Wisconsin Department of Health. She says menthol sales have been increasing over the last decade. The reason why? She says it’s because of disproportionate tobacco advertisements promoted to African American and other communities of color. 

“Nine out of ten African-American smokers are smoking menthol. So we’re trying to invest in areas that we hope can decrease some of those disparities. We see these disparities across communities of color, youth, and also LGBTQ populations,” Tran said. “Some of those old tactics that we’ve seen around sponsoring events and music festivals and retail promotions in these communities have continued. They have really exacerbated the challenges related to menthol driven inequities in smoking.”

Approximately 38% of all cigarette sales in the United States were menthol cigarettes, according to the American Lung Association. This marks the highest rate since major tobacco companies were mandated to report their data.

Wisconsin’s campaign highlights how smoking contributes to leading causes of death among the BIPOC community. The three leading causes of death caused by smoking in the African American community are heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

Additionally, the adult smoking prevalence for African Americans in Wisconsin is much higher. In some cases nearly twice as high, compared to other communities across the state. Only two states have banned Menthol cigarettes California and Massachusetts.