The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday that it would move to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products. The FDA faced a deadline on Thursday to answer a 2013 citizen petition to ban or curb menthol products. The petition turned into a court filing in 2020. “The FDA is working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars; the authority to adopt product standards is one of the most powerful tobacco regulatory tools Congress gave the agency,” the FDA said in a news release Thursday. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 7 out of 10 black youths between the ages of 12 and 17 reported smoking menthol cigarettes, while black adults have the highest percentage of menthol usage compared to other …