FDA moves to slash nicotine in cigarettes

Nicotine levels in cigarettes sold in the U.S. would have to get lowered dramatically under a new FDA proposal.

Nicotine levels in cigarettes sold in the U.S. would have to be drastically lowered under a proposal released Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration.

If finalized, the change would mean that cigarettes would lose their ability to hook most people into addiction.

“By reducing the nicotine level of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products to a level low enough to no longer create or sustain addiction, the cycle of exposure to these toxic chemicals can be broken,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said during a briefing with reporters.

Smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year. Levels of nicotine in cigarettes vary widely depending on the brand but usually average 13 milligrams a cigarette. The FDA’s plan would limit nicotine in nearly all combustible tobacco products — a category that includes cigarettes, most cigars and pipe tobacco — to 0.07 milligrams. That’s about a 95% reduction.

Although the proposal was released at the 11th hour by the outgoing Biden administration, officials during President-elect Donald Trump's first term raised the possibility of a federal regulatory plan for nicotine. So it’s possible that the change could move forward in the next four years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/nicotine-cigarettes-fda-moves-to-cut-rcna187607

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