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promotions, and cheaper prices for menthol cigarettes compared to other communities The African. American Tobacco AAT Control Leadership Council -SaO rg Bhwk Liras (Henriksen et al., 2011; Seidenberg et al., 2010). These predacious practices for the past 50 years have led to Black folks dying disproportionately from heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes and other tobacco related diseases (RSG, 2014). Take note that new research,just published this month shows that menthol cigarettes were responsible for 1.5 million new smokers, 157 000 smoking-related premature deaths and 1.5 million life-years lost among African Americans over 1980-2018.While African Americans constitute 12% of the total US population, these figures represent, respectively, a staggering 15%, 41% and 50% of the total menthol-related harm (Mendez & Le, 2021) The Council should be aware that menthol is an anesthetic by definition, and as if to add insult to injury, masks the harsh taste of tobacco and allows for deeper inhalation of toxins and greater amounts of nicotine. The greater the nicotine intake, the greater the addiction. Hence, it is no surprise menthol cigarette users find it harder to quit than non-menthol cigarette users (Ton et al., 2015; Levy et al., 2011). The "cool refreshing taste of menthol" heralded by the tobacco industry is just a guise; ultimately, menthol and all flavors allow the poisons in cigarettes and cigarillos "to go down easier!" Hookah: The Manipulation of Culture for Industry Profits! While we have all become aware of the meteoric rise of E-Cigarette use, especially among kids, another addictive product is growing in popularity: flavored shisha/Hookah. Let's not be fooled: passing tobacco smoke through water does nothing to stop the user from inhaling all the toxins, nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals associated with tobacco smoking. Let's be clear, Hookah is just as deadly as cigarettes, if not more. Studies show that in a single hookah smoking session of 40 minutes, smokers consume 25 times the tar, 125 times the smoke 2.5 times the nicotine and 10 times the carbon monoxide compared to smoking a cigarette (Primack et al., 2016). Moreover, both patrons and employees at Hookah lounges are exposed to elevated levels of 2nd hand smoke an already recognized cause of cancer(Zhou et al., 2016) Then there is the fiction that Hookah smoking is a 1000-year-old tradition in the Middle East. Look, tobacco only made its way the Europe some 500 years ago and only gradually made its way to the Middle East 3 to 4 hundred years ago. Make no mistake about it, it's the Hookah Lounge owner's manipulation of culture argument that is used to attract more business and profits. Flavored shisha like Blue Mist, Irish Kiss and Sex on the Beach has nothing to do with Middle Eastern Culture. Once it was determined in the 1960s that smoking kills, Islamic Leaders deemed tobacco, Hookah and Shisha Forbidden. At bottom, Hookah lounges with their nightclub atmosphere have nothing to do with Middle Eastern Culture, rather it's all about the Benjamin's! It's not about getting rid of all hookahs or all tobacco products, it's about getting rid of all