A New Jersey Democrat is calling for a state ban on the sale of menthol-flavored cigarettes, saying the state must act to save lives where the federal government has not.

State Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a physician, said menthol has escaped being prohibited while other additives that are proven to promote addiction to nicotine have been banned.

"Perhaps we can do what the federal government has failed to do," said Conaway, D-Burlington, chairman of the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee. "We're going to try to do what's right here in New Jersey."

The Garden State would be the first state to enact such a ban.

The bill (A2185), sponsored by Conaway, would add menthol-flavored cigarettes to the state's list of prohibited flavored cigarettes. It also updates the list to include clove cigarettes, which are already part of a federal ban.

The Health and Senior Services Committee approved the bill by a vote of 7-3 with three abstentions on Monday.

A representative from the New Jersey Food Council told the committee that retailers would suffer huge revenue losses, and its members reported menthol cigarettes account for 35 percent to 40 percent of their total sales.

One retailer estimated they would lose $80 million in sales, said the Food Council's Mary Ellen Peppard.

While there's no fiscal estimate on the bill, Peppard warned the tax revenue New Jersey receives from cigarette sales would take a hit.

Conaway said the scale should tip in favor of preserving life.

The cooling effect of menthol, Conaway said, "allows people to draw more of these toxic substances into the lung and hold them there," he said.

"Science supports the fact that it promotes cancer. That's why the other flavors and cooling agents have been removed."

Marketing for menthol cigarettes, Conaway noted, target black and low-income communities. Studies have shown advertisements for menthol cigarettes are more likely to appear in publications with high African-American readership.

Black men and women are more likely to have a harder time successfully quitting smoking. And according to the American Lung Association, black men and women are also "more likely to develop and die from lung cancer."

A 2011 study by The Cancer Institute of New Jersey found that more than 70 percent of black smokers in the U.S. were menthol smokers, and even more in New Jersey, where the rate was about 80 percent.

In comparison, only 21 percent of white smokers smoked menthols.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.