Letters: Biden administration should finalize rules to end menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. While we already have made advancements in Illinois through the passage of the federal legislation known as Tobacco 21, the use of tobacco products among youths, especially flavored products, remains an ongoing public health problem. Ending the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will save the lives of many Cook County residents.

The 2020 Illinois Youth Survey found that about 1 in 4 high school seniors in suburban Cook County had used one or more tobacco products, including cigarettes, in the past 30 days. More than 40% of youths who smoke cigarettes use menthol cigarettes, and close to 65% of youths who smoke cigars use flavored cigars. Nicotine exposure from use of flavored tobacco products, such as menthol cigarettes, can cause addiction and significant harm to the developing adolescent brain.

The tobacco industry also has a long history of predatorily targeting the Black community to promote the use of flavored tobacco products such as menthol cigarettes. The deadly effects of these deceptive marketing tactics are staggering. Black individuals are more likely to use tobacco, and more than 81% who reported smoking use menthol cigarettes. In Illinois, Black residents have a significantly higher rate of new lung cancer cases and deaths compared to all other races and ethnicities.

Modeling studies have estimated that upward of 654,000 smoking-attributable deaths would be avoided by the year 2060 if menthol cigarettes were no longer available in the United States.

For these reasons, Cook County Department of Public Health, the nationally accredited and state-certified public health authority for suburban Cook County and affiliate of Cook County Health, is joining the American Lung Association and other health partners to strongly urge the Biden administration to finalize the proposed rules to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

— Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, chief operating officer, Cook County Department of Public Health

There are ways to help families

The op-ed “We can make Chicago safer by prioritizing stronger families” (Dec. 27) is an interesting commentary.

When I was in elementary school back in the 1950s, there was one student who was a troublemaker. He came from a single-parent family. I wonder how this white kid ended up.

Which brings us to crime described in the commentary.

I also recall taking public transportation several years ago to 87th Street and Damen Avenue to a church event. At 87th and Cicero Avenue, as I waited for a bus, a young woman arrived for the bus too. She just got off work. We talked. She had a toddler. On the bus, I asked her if she ever took her child to the library for story hour. No, she told me, children can learn on their own. As a teacher, I was dismayed by the response. She probably was sleeping during that time and could not take her child to the library. Life is so hard when one lacks a good education from both family and school.

White people have taken the life savings of people of color for ages. It continues to this day, as we have learned that Black farmers do not obtain a saving grace during down years that white farmers obtain easily; they thus lose their farms to white farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is being sued over decades of discrimination.

And it was not that long ago that I read in the paper about a successful Black TV commentator who bought a home, and when the seller saw the man, the seller reneged.

Discrimination is alive and well throughout the United States.

So yes, investing in families is strategic, in order to promote two-parent households.

— Janice Gintzler, Crestwood

Keeping Christmas traditions

Thanks to Laura Washington (“The Grinch is meddling with my Christmas joy,” Dec. 25) for expressing many of my similar feelings regarding the Christmas season, especially the reduction in Christmas cards. The traditions are falling away and, along with them, the joy of receiving a card in the mail with a note or letter catching up with a friend or relative.

Oh! That’s right — Facebook. No need to do Christmas. And who knows penmanship anymore?

Well, just to assure Washington, I sent out my cards with letters and notes, and I did my shopping locally in Lincoln Square, where I purchased the majority of gifts for family in one afternoon, often conferring with a fellow shopper or store clerk as to an appropriate gift. The stollen was bought at our local cafe, where I paused for a fine cup of coffee and chat with a friend.

Mass on Christmas Eve found our now-closed, but used for special occasions, church packed pew to pew with families and friends and seniors who have attended these services for decades, still acknowledging Christ in Christmas.

So, for Washington, although the holiday is not the same and nothing ever stays the same, there are those of us out here who appreciate those traditions that make Christmas so special. She is not alone.

— Lorraine Klabunde, Chicago

I still call it Marshall Field’s

I enjoy reading Laura Washington’s columns and especially enjoyed her Christmas one. I, too, refuse to call Marshall Field’s “Macy’s,” just like I refuse to call the home of the White Sox anything but Comiskey Park!

— Joel Schechter, Chicago

An affectionate goodbye

I was just reading the affectionate obituary for Tom Smothers and thinking, with pleasure, how unlikely it is that a similarly affectionate obituary will ever be written for the CBS censors who bedeviled “The Smothers Brothers Show.”

— Richard Weiland, Evanston

Hullabaloo over stickers

Regarding the story “Pride symbols displayed at elementary in Manhattan cause divide” (Dec. 26): Based loosely on the immortal words of Sigmund Freud and, I would imagine, most reasonable 5- to 8-year-olds: Sometimes, a rainbow sticker is just a rainbow sticker.

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Pun potential is red-hot

The custom car used to promote Slim Jim snack beef sticks was recently stolen in California and discovered outside of Chicago.

Is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile next on the list? I’d throw in a bad joke here, but to be frank, I’m not in the mood for a hot dog pun.

— Vin Morabito, Scranton, Pennsylvania

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