The FDA has planned to reduce cigarettes' nicotine level to combat the addiction. It is the first time when the FDA is working to write new rules to regulate tobacco.
The FDA acquired power in 2009 to control or regulate the nicotine level in the cigarettes, though never applied it. The chief of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, says the staff of the agency to write new rules on nicotine. The agency has given four years to the e-cigarette makers to comply with the review of the existing products in the market. The new rules could help people in quitting smoking.
According to Gottlieb, the renewed focus on the nicotine must help to attain a world with no cigarette addiction among the present kids' future generation. The FDA's Center for Tobacco Products will monitor if lowering the nicotine level could develop the black market for the products with higher nicotine level. The agency will see what role the e-cigarettes could play in decreasing harm from cigarette smoking. New rules will also address the products that contain flavored tobacco, ABC 13 reported.
The use of tobacco causes cancer, heart disease, and an annual estimate shows that above 480,000 people die from the tobacco use in the U.S. Nicotine used in the tobacco makes the smokers addictive and the tar like substances inhaled by the smokers make the cigarette deadly. That means the increment of the nicotine level only makes a cigarette less addictive not safe. A researcher of the University of Pittsburgh, Eric Donny, has welcomed the recent FDA announcement on nicotine.
Donny and the other researchers have studied on nicotine and explored that nicotine reduction by 90 percent decreases the smokers' dependency on cigarettes. Some people concern that due to the lower nicotine levels smokers could increase their smoking, but research shows less possibility of it. Notably, the Altria Group that sells Marlboro, and e-cigarettes, says that it would be engaged completely in the rule-making process of the FDA.
Rob Stein from the NPR has stated that the recent announcement by the FDA is a great blow to the big cigarette. No doubt the tobacco stocks have already begun to fall after the FDA chief's words regarding the lower nicotine level. According to NPR, the agency will hold sessions for the public comment.
With these sessions, the FDA wants to show the way to regulate the "kid-appealing flavors" often exist in the cigars and the e-cigarettes. The agency also issued a new timeline that is until Aug. 8, 2021, to submit applications regarding the pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, and cigars. President of the popular Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Matthew Myers, has appreciated the FDA approach to address the cigarette addiction.
