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The FDA is "simply kicking the can down the road," Joseph Califano Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, and Louis Sullivan, former Health and Human Services Secretary for President George H.W. Bush, said in a joint statement. Along with other public health advocates Tuesday, they urged the agency to ban menthol cigarettes. "The failure of this administration to act undermines the public health and is particularly harmful to vulnerable young Americans and African-Americans," they said. A menthol ban or other restriction on the flavored cigarettes would fall heavily on Lorillard Inc., whose Newport brand is the top-selling menthol cigarette in the U.S., with nearly 38 percent of the market. Lorillard, based in Greensboro, N.C., is the country's third-largest tobacco company. CEO Murray Kessler said in a statement that Lorillard looks forward to participating in the regulatory process and reiterated its long-held belief that menthol cigarettes shouldn't be treated differently. The move comes ahead of a Wednesday deadline for the U.S. to respond to the World Trade Organization's findings last year that the FDA's ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distributing candy-, fruit- and clove-flavored tobacco breaks trade rules because it exempts menthol cigarettes, most of which are made in the U.S.. The investigation was launched following a request from Indonesia, which claims more than 6 million of its people depend on the production of clove cigarettes -- a staple of the country's smoking culture.
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