These vape fluids will soon vanish Spencer Platt/Getty

TOBACCO is to lose its taste in San Francisco. The Californian city has become the first in the US to ban all sales of flavoured tobacco.

Starting next April, the ban covers any tobacco product with a “distinguishable taste or aroma”, including menthol cigarettes and flavoured vape fluids. Its backers say it will protect certain minorities.

Research by the California Tobacco Control Program suggests almost three-quarters of black adult smokers, and half of gay smokers, buy menthol cigarettes, compared with only a fifth of white adult smokers. Menthol seems to boost addictiveness, other work shows.


“This ordinance says to the world that San Francisco is in the front line of defence against a social injustice that has been affecting African Americans, the LGBTQ community and other communities of colour,” says Valerie Yerger at the University of California, San Francisco.

This article appeared in print under the headline “San Fran’s flavour ban”