Jan. 15 (UPI) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed rule would limit the level of nicotine in cigarettes and certain other tobacco products if finalized, the agency said on Wednesday.
The United States would become the first country to limit nicotine, which has been connected to smoking-related diseases and death.
The FDA said the proposed level of nicotine for cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products would be low enough to not create sustained addiction that would lead users to smoke more.
“Multiple administrations have acknowledged the immense opportunity that a proposal of this kind offered to address the barriers of tobacco-related disease,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.
“Today’s proposal envisions a future where it would be less likely for young people to use cigarettes and more individuals who currently smoke could quit or switch to less harmful products.”
Califf said the rule could not only save lives but money in health care costs and purchasing addictive cigarettes and similar products.
“I hope we can all agree that significantly reducing the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. is an admirable goal we should all work towards,” Califf said.
Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, said while cigarette flavors attract young people to tobacco products, it is the nicotine that makes them addicts.
“Reducing nicotine non-addictive levels in combusted tobacco products would be fulfill a major promise inherent in the Tobacco Control Act to save millions of lives,” he said. “Making tobacco products non-addictive would dramatically reduce the number of young people who become hooked when they are experimenting.”
