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Menthol Exception In US Tobacco Bill Draws Critics' Fire 

The future of menthol cigarettes, smoked by 12 million Americans and 75 percent of African-American smokers, could be the next flashpoint in a decades-long campaign against smoking in the United States.

Last week, Congress passed a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products, a move that includes the banning of Indonesian clove cigarettes.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law soon. The bill also outlawed o ther flavorings like chocolate an d cherry that can attract young people to start smoking, but excluded menthol, by far the most popular flavoring, accounting for around 27 percent of the cigarette market.

Under the bill, the FDA must study the medical effects and marketing of menthol and its impact on blacks, Hispanics and other groups and report within 18 months. In theory, the FDA could then move to ban menthol cigarettes but some anti-smoking activists are skeptical the agency will do so.

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