Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to FDA: Remove Menthol!


Our friends at the Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership

 (APPEAL) had another recent great success with organizing a petitioned letter to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) requesting they ask FDA to remove menthol.

With a great number of signatures (including the Network’s), CAPAC did write a letter to FDA not only asking that menthol be removed but providing recommendations on further reducing tobacco use in diverse communities.  You can see the letter here: CAPAC Menthol Letter. Now, we will wait and see if FDA moves on menthol.

This is a great show of collaboration led by APPEAL, and we congratulate their successful efforts!

Published by Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBA

Emilia Dunham is currently a Project Manager at MassHealth/Department of Public Health, and formerly the Project Manager of the Life Skills project at The Fenway Institute, an HIV intervention study for young transgender women. Emilia worked at Fenway for 7 years, first as a Quality Control and Regulatory Assistant mainly involved with biomedical HIV prevention trials, before serving as the Program Associate for The Network for LGBT Health Equity, a network instrumental in many national LGBT health policy improvements. She is also involved with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, serving as a Steering Committee member and the Policy Committee Co-Chair, an organization largely responsible for the recent passage of the Trans Rights Bill. Additionally she serves as a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, Co-Chair of the Recommendations Committee. Emilia received a Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University. There she served as President of the LGBTQ student group where she planned programs such as Pride Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and AIDS Week. In addition, she advocated for LGBTQ inclusive policies and programming on campus such as a Gender Neutral Housing program, an LGBTQ Center and the expansion of Women’s Studies to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Emilia recently earned a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration in health policy and management from the Brandeis Heller School School for Social Policy and Management.

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