Some proposed plans in the US would call for a 95% reduction in the nicotine level in cigarettes.
The Biden administration is working on a rule requiring tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes sold in the US to minimal or nonaddictive levels. A proposed rule, expected to be issued in May 2023 for public comment, would be created with the aim of making it easier for smokers to quit and help prevent youth from taking up the habit. However, the policy may take years before it comes into effect as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which would be in charge of issuing the rule, would have to approve it first, which would delay the policy's implementation for years.
If implemented, the policy would place the US at the forefront of global anti-smoking initiatives. Only New Zealand has developed such a plan.
This is not FDA’s first attempt at reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes. In 2017 then-commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced lowering nicotine levels as part of a broader tobacco control policy. The matter made it as far as FDA publishing an information-gathering notice in 2018 and the policy being listed on the administration’s regulatory agenda. This effort was abandoned after Gottlieb left the agency in the spring of 2019.
Some proposed plans would call for a 95% reduction in the nicotine level in cigarettes. According to experts, this might put the estimated 30 million US smokers into a condition of nicotine withdrawal, which includes agitation, difficulty concentrating, and irritability. Experts pointed out that more determined smokers may even try to get high-nicotine cigarettes on the black market or across the borders in Canada and Mexico.