TAMPA, Fla. — Smoking leads to deadly diseases like cancer according to most medical professionals and medical journals.

So why would tobacco companies specifically targeting Black communities?

Dr. Kurt Ribisl is a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. He was one of several researchers conducting the study that examined how tobacco companies target Black communities. 

“Oftentimes prices are cheaper in stores where census tracks more black residents. So that’s indicative that there are more price promotions that encourage people to smoke in the black community,” Ribisl said.

Their study focused mostly on the type of cigarette: menthol.

“Most of the studies suggest that the industry has really targeted the African American community with menthol," he said. “You see dramatic differences in the use of menthol by the Black and white community. It’s somewhere around 80% of black smokers are smoking a menthol brand but it’s only about 20-30% of white smokers.”

Ribisi launched a website that shows how cigarettes are marketed at certain stores.

It made me curious about Bay Area stores and check out this comparison at a store in a predominantly black neighborhood compared to this one in a neighborhood that’s not predominantly black. ​

“There are really different environments out there that will encourage or discourage smoking and it’s really I think, a social justice issue,” Ribisl said.

And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by organizations like the NAACP. This summer the Food and Drug Administration announced they’re planning to ban menthol cigarettes.

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center got wind of these target marketing trends too.

Dr. Jenny Vidrine with Moffitt Cancer Center Health Outcomes & Behavior says their findings may be surprising to some.

“There are reams and reams of internal tobacco documents showing they’ve been intentionally marketed,” she said. “Their goal is to get people hooked and to get people hooked when they’re younger, and if you have a lot of stress in your life and you’re dealing with discrimination and other types of stress that makes it harder to quit. If you’ve got fewer economic resources that makes it harder to quit.”

And that’s what opens the door to cancers.

“(Smoking is) associated with at least 16 different types of cancer," Vidrine said. "It’s the leading cause of heart disease, stroke."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans usually smoke fewer cigarettes and start smoking cigarettes at an older age.  African Americans are also more likely to die from smoking-related diseases than whites.