Industry News
Study: 97% of FDA Menthol Ban Public Comments Were Form Letters
When the FDA proposed banning menthol cigarettes in 2022, nearly a quarter-million public comments poured in — and the government cited that flood of input as a reason to slow down. A new study says the flood was largely manufactured. Researchers at Rutgers found that 97% of comments on the menthol rule were form letters, and that tobacco companies' own campaigns generated close to half of them.
What the researchers found
The study, published August 20 in JAMA Network Open and led by Rutgers School of Public Health professor Andrea Villanti, analyzed all 246,808 comments submitted on the FDA's proposed menthol-cigarette and flavored-cigar rules. Using software to flag recurring language, the team matched the vast majority of comments to just 17 form-letter templates. Only about 2% of comments were unique.
Tracing the templates back to their origins, the researchers linked roughly 46% of menthol form letters to tobacco-company campaigns — chiefly Reynolds American's "Own It, Voice It" effort, which alone accounted for about a third of all menthol comments, and Altria campaigns adding another 12%. These campaigns ran "take action" websites that assembled prewritten opposition letters for consumers to submit. Among the genuinely unique comments, opposition ran 96% on the menthol docket — citing lost sales and illicit-market fears far more often than health evidence.
"The sheer volume of comments was used as a reason to delay a public health policy that would have saved lives," Villanti said.
The ban that never happened
The timeline gives the study its sting. The FDA proposed the menthol rule in April 2022; the Biden administration shelved it in April 2024, citing the need to weigh the enormous comment record; and the FDA formally withdrew it in January 2025 under the Trump administration. Menthol cigarettes — used by roughly 88% of Black adult smokers, which is why health groups framed the ban as an equity measure — remain fully legal.
Fairness requires noting what the study doesn't show: mobilizing customers to comment on a rule is legal, commonplace advocacy, used by industries and advocacy groups alike. Ban opponents also raised substantive arguments that went beyond form letters — the ACLU and some law-enforcement groups warned about policing consequences in Black communities, and critics argued a ban would feed an illicit menthol market. The FDA had said enforcement would target manufacturers and retailers, not individual smokers. And a withdrawal isn't forever: a future administration can restart the rulemaking, and litigation seeking to force FDA action has continued.
What it means for retailers and shoppers
For now, nothing changes on shelves — menthol products remain legal federally, though state and local flavor bans (California, Massachusetts, and a growing county-level patchwork) still apply. For those in areas where they remain available, popular options like Smoker's Choice Menthol Filtered Cigars or Swisher Sweets Menthol Little Cigars continue to be stocked. Other menthol alternatives like Largo Menthol Pipe Tobacco and Shargio Filter Tubes Green (Menthol) also remain popular choices in the Filtered Cigar & Little Cigar Collection.
The study's real audience is regulators: it's a case that raw comment counts are a poor measure of public opinion, and future rulemakings may discount mass-generated form letters accordingly. That would cut both ways, since health groups run comment campaigns too. Shoppers looking for a smooth mellow smoke can still find a wide variety of Tobacco Products & Smoking Accessories online.
The bottom line
The menthol ban died by many hands — politics, litigation risk, and an election year among them. But this study adds a documented mechanism: a comment process overwhelmingly filled by industry-organized form letters, then cited as evidence the public was divided. For more information on industry trends, you can view our Tobacco Guide.