Facts About Smoking Among
African Americans

Interested in smoking information specific to African Americans?  Read on for more!

• Are menthol cigarettes marketed more to African Americans than to white smokers?  According to the Surgeon General, yes!  Nearly 66% of cigarette advertisements in African American magazines are for menthol cigarettes, compared to 15% of cigarette ads in general population magazines.
• More than 75% of African American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes as compared to 23% of white smokers.
• The cigarettes smoked most often by African American teens are Newport (61%), Kool (11%), and Salem (10%) - all of those are mentholated brands.  (SGR, 1998)
• Smoking rates among African American high school students rose 80% from 1991 to 1997!  The smoking rate for African American males doubled in that time from 14.1% to 28.2%!
• African American men have a lung cancer death rate 50% higher than white men.  This means that if you compare an African American man with lung cancer and a white man with lung cancer, the African American man is 50% more likely to die of his disease.
• More than 80% of African American men who smoke and get lung cancer die from the disease, compared with 54% of their white counterparts.

Click here to read about the UJIMA African American Youth Initiative, where you can work collectively with other youth to advocate for a smoke-free community!