The Biden administration said Tuesday that it would move forward with a plan to significantly reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.
In a press release, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated it would “develop a proposed product standard that would establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes…The goal of the potential rule would be to reduce youth use, addiction, and death.”
The FDA is aiming to publish the proposed rule by May 2023.
The process will involve soliciting public comment and engaging directly with the tobacco industry.
The proposed rule will more than likely result in litigation, with tobacco companies seeking injunctions potentially delaying the implementation of any rule by several years, according to Forbes.
If enacted, the move would represent the most significant government action to prevent smoking since 1998, when a Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 U.S. states limited how tobacco products could be advertised.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate approximately 480,000 die annually as a result of consuming tobacco products, including deaths from secondhand smoke.
Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, stated to The Washington Post that reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes could be “one of the most impactful public health efforts in modern times.”
The idea is based on research from the University of Minnesota published in 2018. It found that tobacco users who used test cigarettes with minimal amounts of nicotine smoked fewer cigarettes and could quit more easily.
When news first broke that the FDA might be developing a rule to limit nicotine in tobacco products back in April, a spokesperson for the tobacco company Altria Group stated, “Any action that the FDA takes must be based on science and evidence and must consider the real-world consequences of such actions, including the growth of an illicit market and the impact on hundreds of thousands of jobs from the farm to local stores across the country.”
