Health officials are pushing to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes and other tobacco products to “minimally or nonaddictive” levels in a bid to “tackle one of the deadliest consumer products in history.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule to cap nicotine levels at 0.7 milligrams per gram of tobacco in cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products, including cigars and pipe tobacco.
The proposal comes nearly seven years after former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb first announced the agency’s plans to make it “harder for future generations to become addicted” to combustible cigarettes.
Nicotine is the addictive substance in tobacco that keeps users hooked, health officials say. The new rule, which is backed by scientific evidence, proposes nicotine levels low enough so that it would “no longer create or sustain addiction.”
“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,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement.
Based on the agency’s population health model, officials estimate that nearly 13 million people who currently smoke cigarettes will quit within a year of the rule taking effect. That number is expected to grow to 19.5 million people within five years after the rule is finalized. By 2100, the measure could prevent some 48 million U.S. youth from starting to smoke.
Besides potentially saving millions of lives, the rule could “dramatically reduce the burden of severe illness and disability, while also saving huge amounts of money,” Califf said. “Reducing the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. is an admirable goal we should all work toward.”
Cigarette smoking, which the FDA estimates kills nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. each year, costs the nation over $600 billion annually in health care expenses and lost productivity. It remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the country.
Starting on Thursday, the public will have through Sept. 15 to comment on the proposed rule. The FDA reviews all public comments as it considers further action.
If the rule is finalized, the U.S. would become the first country to impose such a nicotine limit.