How Big Tobacco flooded the FDA with public comments to kill a menthol cigarette ban
A Rutgers analysis of FDA dockets found that most comments were form letters, with many traceable to tobacco-industry campaigns.
TL;DR
- A Rutgers study of 246,808 comments on proposed FDA rules found that 97% of menthol-rule submissions were form letters.
- The researchers linked a substantial share of those letters to tobacco-company campaigns, while only a small fraction were unique.
- The study analyzes a past rulemaking record and does not establish that comment volume alone caused the FDA's decision.
STAT reports that the FDA received about 175,000 comments on its 2022 menthol proposal and that 97% were form letters, drawing on a Rutgers study published in JAMA Network Open. The study examined both menthol and flavored-cigar dockets. [1] [2]
The researchers' release says 46% of menthol-rule form letters contained material traceable to tobacco-company campaigns and that about 2% of comments were unique. The finding documents the composition of submissions; causal claims about the rule's eventual fate remain analysis rather than a measured experimental result. [1] [2]
Why it matters
The analysis shows how coordinated participation can shape the record agencies must evaluate, making comment provenance relevant to both public-health policy and regulatory process design.
Editor's note
Headline is verbatim from STAT. Study statistics are attributed to the Rutgers/JAMA research; causality is qualified.