It’s been nearly 23 years since the New York City Smoke-Free Air Act was passed, prohibiting smoking in virtually all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants. This marked a pivotal shift in public health policy, elevating the right to breathe clean air above business convention and setting one of the nation’s strongest smoking bans. What followed was a dramatic reduction in indoor air pollutants in establishments, disproving the myth that such protections would devastate hospitality sectors. Many venues experienced stable or even increased business despite the restrictions.
Following the indoor ban, NYC continued to expand smoke-free protections. By 2009, hospital entrances and grounds were smoke-free, and in 2011, outdoor public spaces—including parks, plazas, and beaches—also went smoke-free. Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, we saw sweeping tobacco control legislation passed, banning flavored e-liquids, increasing the legal tobacco purchase age to 21, eliminating tobacco products from pharmacy shelves, and creating more transparency around smoke-free policies in residential buildings, among others.
Unfortunately, as the tobacco industry saw smoking rates decline, they pivoted to flavors—including a renewed push for menthol—to entice new users, especially youth. The 2009 city-level and federal flavor bans excluded menthol, inadvertently preserving one of the industry’s most effective hook tools. Menthol cigarettes—preferred by a majority of Black (86%) and Hispanic (72%) smokers in the state—have remained legal, perpetuating well-documented disparities in tobacco use.
With menthol still permitted, and heavily marketed toward Black, Latino, LGBTQ+, and low-income communities, we must renew our own efforts to educate about the deadly effects of menthol products and expose the tobacco industry’s predatory practices. With other states like Massachusetts and California, and even entire countries like Canada, taking action to protect its constituents from these dangerous products, we are seeing the scales tip again in favor of public health.
At NYC Smoke-Free, it is our hope that the presence of menthol products will soon be just as taboo as smoking inside restaurants.
Julia Cuthbertson is a Community Engagement Manager, South (Brooklyn & Staten Island) for NYC Smoke-Free.
