Neighbouring California cities San Francisco and Oakland are considering legislation to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavoured tobacco products, the San Francisco Examiner said.

“The disproportionate use of menthol cigarettes among targeted groups, especially the extremely high use among African-Americans, is troubling because of the long-term adverse health impacts on those groups,” states the San Francisco proposal as cited by the Examiner. The menthol ban would be part of a package of proposed restrictions that would take flavoured cigars, flavoured shisha and flavoured e-liquids containing nicotine off the market. A similar proposal is before the Oakland City Council, the Examiner said.
Introduced by Supervisor Malia Cohen, the San Francisco initiative reportedly has the approval of Mayor Ed Lee. Oakland City Councillor Annie Campbell Washington is a co-author of that city’s proposal, the Examiner reported.