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The Role of Computational Models on Assessing the Population Health Consequences of Menthol Cigarettes and the Benefits of a Menthol Ban {"end": "2025-01-21T19:00:00", "start": "2025-01-21T18:00:00"} 2025-01-21T19:00:00Z {"og_description":"The goal of this Mind the Gap webinar is to provide the audience with an understanding of the existing evidence on the population harm associated with menthol cigarettes.","og_image":"https://prevention.nih.gov/sites/default/files/MtG/2025/Mendez/MtG%20Proschan.png","og_image_url":"https://prevention.nih.gov/sites/default/files/MtG/2025/Mendez/MtG%20Proschan.png","twitter_cards_description":"The goal of this Mind the Gap webinar is to provide the audience with an understanding of the existing evidence on the population harm associated with menthol cigarettes.","twitter_cards_image":"https://prevention.nih.gov/sites/default/files/MtG/2025/Mendez/MtG%20Proschan.png","twitter_cards_type":"summary_large_image"} 2025-01-21T18:00:00Z
In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) issued a report indicating that removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit public health. The committee's recommendations were partly based on simulation models estimating the health impact of menthol cigarettes and the potential benefits of a ban. Since then, additional simulation studies have been published, providing new perspectives and updated estimates of the harm caused by menthol cigarettes to the population. This presentation explains these models' assumptions, constructs, input data, parameter values, and results. The goal is to provide the audience with an understanding of the existing evidence on the population harm associated with menthol cigarettes.
Dr. David Mendez is a Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He holds a Ph.D. in management science, an M.S. in operations research/systems science, and an M.S. in applied statistics from Michigan State University. Since 1995, Dr. Mendez has focused his research on developing and applying computational models to study the trajectory of the smoking epidemic in the United States and globally, as well as the potential future effects of proposed tobacco control policies. Dr. Mendez has consulted for various national organizations, including the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FDA on tobacco modeling. Notably, he developed the simulation model on menthol cigarettes that produced the population-level estimates of menthol cigarette harm included in the 2011 TPSAC report. Currently, Dr. Mendez is one of the three Principal Investigators of the Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations, amulti-institutionalTobacco Center of Regulatory Science funded by FDA and the National Cancer Institute, which focuses on evaluating the effects of potential tobacco regulatory actions through simulation modeling.
University of Michigan School of Public Health
View the Webinar Resources About the Webinar About David Mendez https://youtu.be/-co_SHBHHBg
Levy DT, Meza R, Yuan Z, et al.Public health impact of a US ban on menthol in cigarettes and cigars: a simulation study.Tobacco Control2023;32:e37-e44.
Le TT, Mendez D. An estimation of the harm of menthol cigarettes in the United States from 1980 to 2018.Tobacco Control2022;31:564-568.
Issabakhsh M, Meza R, Li Y, et al.Public health impact of a US menthol cigarette ban on the non-Hispanic black population: a simulation study.Tobacco Control2024;33:126-130.
Mendez D, Le TTT. Consequences of a match made in hell: the harm caused by menthol smoking to the African American population over 1980–2018.Tobacco Control2022;31:569-571.
Levy DT, Pearson JL, Villanti AC,et al. Modeling the future effects of a menthol ban on smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths in the United States.AJPH2011;101:1236-1240.
Mendez D. Appendix A: “Results from a Population Dynamics Model of the Consequences of Menthol Cigarettes for Smoking Prevalence and Disease Risks.” in Menthol Cigarettes and Public Health: Review of the Scientific Evidence and Recommendations. FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee Report. Washington, DC 2011.
- David LevyGeorgetown University
- Rafael MezaBC Cancer
- Dorothy HatsukamiUniversity of Minnesota
- Neal BenowitzUniversity of California, San Francisco
- Jonathan SametColorado School of Public Health
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