FDA sued over ‘almost unconscionable’ delay in ban on menthol tobacco products [Video]

A coalition of civil rights and medical organizations said Tuesday that they are suing the US Food and Drug Administration because it has missed its own deadline to take action to ban menthol cigarettes.

“This is profits over people, and we are just really asking on behalf of the national associations that people are put first,” Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, the nation’s oldest group representing Black physicians, said at a news conference Tuesday.

The other plaintiffs are the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and Action on Smoking and Health.

“The industry knows that every year of delay is another year where they have the opportunity to addict another batch of our people,” Carol McGruder, founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, said at the news conference.

The FDA had said the issue was a “top priority” when it sent the final …