FDA wants to decrease nicotine content in cigarettes
In a bid to drive down the nearly half a million U.S. deaths attributed to smoking each year, the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to regulate tobacco that is notable for its breadth and simplicity: strip cigarettes of their power over users by reducing their nicotine content to nonaddictive levels.
Breaking ranks with an administration bent on scrapping federal regulations, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Thursday he was launching an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking — the first steps in the creation of a new regulation — on tobacco products. Gottlieb outlined a plan “to explore a product standard” applicable to all cigarettes that would lower nicotine content to levels below those likely to induce dependence.
Declaring “we are at a crossroads when it comes to addressing nicotine addiction and smoking in this country,” Gottlieb called for a “wide-ranging review of the current scientific understanding about the role nicotine plays in creating or sustaining addiction to cigarettes.”
The FDA commissioner called for a public debate on what maximum nicotine level would best protect the public’s heath, whether reduction of allowable nicotine levels should be implemented all at once or gradually. He also asked whether addicted smokers would compensate for lower nicotine by smoking more, or turn to a black market for highnicotine cigarettes.
“As we explore this novel approach to reducing the death and disease from combustible cigarettes, it’s critical that our policies reflect the latest science and is informed by the input we receive” from groups and individuals with a stake in the outcome, Gottlieb added.
Gottlieb cited new estimates of “one possible policy scenario” that, in its first year of implementation, would boost by roughly 5 million the number of Americans who would quit smoking, and drive the smoking rate from its current level of 15 percent to as low as 1.4 percent.
Those estimates are expected to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Gottlieb said.