FDA begins push to cut addictive nicotine in cigarettes
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials took the first step Thursday to slash levels of addictive nicotine in cigarettes, an unprecedented move designed to help smokers quit and prevent future generations from getting hooked.
The Food and Drug Administration floated the proposal last summer but provided new details in a government filing on the potential impact of drastically cutting nicotine from cigarettes by as much as 80 percent.
Currently, there are no limits on nicotine, which occurs naturally in tobacco plants. Under law, the FDA can regulate nicotine although it cannot remove it completely.
Under one scenario, the FDA estimates the U.S. smoking rate could fall to as low as 1.4 percent by 2060, down from the 15 percent of adults who smoke now. The agency also calculates about 5 million more people would quit cigarettes within one year of implementing limits.
The greatest impact, though, would come from preventing young people from ever becoming addicted, they said.
Limiting nicotine “could help keep future generations of kids who experiment with cigarettes from making the deadly progression from experimentation to addiction,” said Mitch Zeller, the head of the FDA’s tobacco center.
Key to FDA’s proposal: Nicotine is highly addictive, but not deadly. Instead, it’s the burning tobacco and other substances inhaled through smoking that cause cancer, heart disease and bronchitis. Smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year, despite decades of anti-smoking measures that have pushed the smoking rate to new lows.
The agency is first seeking comment on a number of issues, including potential unintended consequences, such as the creation of a black market for higher nicotine products.
The FDA gained authority to regulate ingredients in cigarettes and other tobacco products in 2009. But FDA’s regulatory efforts have been hampered for years by legal challenges by big tobacco companies.