New rule could reduce nicotine levels in tobacco products

The Biden administration is preparing to try to reduce the amount of nicotine in tobacco products, an 11-hour effort that has been years in the making.

The move would give the White House a final chance to try to regulate tobacco, as it had previously been betting on finalizing a long-term pledge to ban menthol-flavored cigarettes.

The rule has not been announced, so the specific language is unknown, but it is expected to require tobacco companies to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and possibly other products to make them less addictive.

It could be published as early as Monday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after it conducted its regulatory review earlier this month.

But that would only begin a bureaucratic journey that tobacco control advocates fear the incoming Trump administration could derail.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease, death and disability in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), killing more than 480,000 people each year. More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.

Most adults who smoke cigarettes want to quit, and half of them reported they had tried to quit in the past year, according to a September CDC survey. However, less than 1 in 10 adults who smoke cigarettes succeed in quitting, due to highly addictive nicotine that changes people’s brain chemistry, making them want to smoke more.

“Reducing nicotine levels will help millions of people quit smoking and prevent countless others from becoming addicted, sparing families across the country from the devastating consequences of tobacco-related disease and death,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, said in a statement. “. The hill.

Public health advocates said the policy has huge potential if the Trump administration follows through. There are currently no limits, so setting any standard would be a huge step forward.

“If this project is completed, it will be a game-changer because it means that children who try tobacco products, and smoke, will not set themselves up for a lifelong addiction,” said Erica Soward, associate vice president of national advocacy for the American Lung Association. organized.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been talking about plans to lower nicotine levels since the first Trump administration in 2018.

Under President Biden, the FDA announced in 2022 that it was developing a proposed rule on the issue, which is scheduled to be issued in May 2023.

More than a year and a half later, the proposal is almost ready for publication.

The FDA estimated in 2022 that lowering nicotine levels could prevent more than 33 million people from becoming regular smokers, that about 5 million additional smokers would quit within a year, and that 134 million collective life years would be gained.

Studies show that cigarettes with low nicotine content reduce people’s dependence on nicotine and can help relieve some of the cravings associated with withdrawal.

“Reducing nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would reduce the likelihood of future generations of young people becoming addicted to cigarettes and help more smokers who are currently addicted to quit,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in 2022. Smoking.”

There will be no immediate changes to tobacco products. The proposal is just the first step.

It will be up to the Trump administration to write, issue and put into effect a final rule that can be reversed.

“We view this as a very important step for public health, but we recognize that this is really the first step, because there will be multiple efforts to try to either render the rule completely ineffective, or bring it back, to repeal it, to delay it,” said Avinel Joseph, interim executive vice president of the Robert Foundation. Wood Johnson: “We will monitor it every step of the way.”

There would also be significant opposition from the tobacco industry, which helped drown out many other potential regulations.

Tobacco companies have donated significantly to President-elect Trump’s campaign, and his chief of staff, Susie Wales, has served as a tobacco lobbyist.

“Tobacco companies have been fighting all kinds of rules that the FDA puts in place regarding their products, and something that would actually make their products…less effective at being an addictive tool would be something that they would be getting rid of every day,” Joseph added. “The effort and money behind the attempt to defeat.”

If the proposed rule goes too far, there will likely be industry lawsuits arguing that the government went too far.

However, public health advocates said they have not ruled out moving forward with the rule.

Although it did not happen during his first term, limiting nicotine is consistent with the “Make America Healthy Again” movement championed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“As a nation, we’re having a conversation about chronic disease, and the Trump administration has certainly brought that to the forefront,” Soward said. “Tobacco use is number one when it comes to preventable chronic diseases and how Americans can be healthier.”

“Few actions would do more to combat chronic diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease that dramatically undermine health in the United States and that the incoming administration has indicated should be a priority to address,” Yolonda Richardson, President and CEO of Tobacco Free Kids Campaign , he said in a statement to The Hill.

On the other hand, conservative free market groups and law enforcement associations say the proposal would amount to a ban on cigarettes, increasing the black market for illicit products.

“For all intents and purposes, [the rule will] “Make cigarettes unregulated and throw them back into the illicit market through prohibition,” said Diane Goldstein, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership.

“Any time you create a law that prohibits something, you make law enforcement responsible for enforcing that. We see that the ban is not working to achieve its intended purposes of potentially reducing smoking.”

Goldstein pointed to the proliferation of illicit products that has followed the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to curb youth vaping.

“The ban does not affect people’s behaviour; “They just go to the underground market to find what they need,” she said.