The US government intends to force tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes sold in the country to minimal or non-addictive levels, according to a government communication.
The regulation, if it goes ahead, would still take a long time to be effective.
A previous attempt in the same direction five years ago has already failed.
The rule “would establish a maximum level of nicotine in cigarettes and certain finished tobacco products.
Because tobacco-related harms stem primarily from addiction to products that repeatedly expose users to toxins, the FDA would take this action to reduce addiction to certain tobacco products, thus offering addicted users greater ability to quit smoking ”, says the text that justifies the proposal, published this Tuesday, and which had been advanced by
The Wall Street Journal
and
The Washington Post
.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last month a proposal to ban menthol as a flavor in cigarettes, as well as all flavors, apart from tobacco, in cigars. .
Now, he is preparing to take another step in his battle to reduce addiction to tobacco and thus combat the diseases and deaths derived from its consumption.
Tobacco is the main preventable cause of death in the country and causes about 480,000 deaths annually.
Nicotine does not directly cause cancer or respiratory or heart disease, but it is the chemical that makes smokers addicted.
Nicotine patches and gum are among the products used to quit tobacco, although smoking also creates a habit or custom that is difficult to wean beyond the physical addiction to nicotine itself.
President Joe Biden already set himself the challenge of fighting cancer when he was vice president with Barack Obama.
Last February he announced the launch of a new initiative in the fight against cancer.
The goal was then set to reduce the cancer mortality rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years and improve the experience of people and their families living with cancer and surviving the disease.
With this, the White House said, it is about "ending cancer as we know it today."
The battle against smoking is very important in that strategy.
Prevention has already been giving effects since the offensive of the last decade of the last century, thanks to information campaigns, advertising restrictions and the tightening of taxation on tobacco, among other measures.
A pack of cigarettes typically costs between $12 and $15 in the United States.
“We have seen a 50% decline in long-term cigarette use among adults and a 68% decline in smoking rates among youth,” says the White House.
According to the authorities, 12.5% of the adult population, some 31 million people, are still smokers.
Reducing the nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels would deal a serious blow to manufacturers.
Therefore, they will probably try to prevent it from being approved.
After the initial push from the White House, the FDA would still have to submit a regulatory proposal for consultation and it may take up to a year to prepare and present it.
After receiving the comments to that draft, you will have to analyze them and approve your final decision.
You will need to document and justify your decision thoroughly to prevent companies from successfully challenging the rule in court.
If the entire process fails to complete during Biden's presidency, the new president elected in 2024 could abort the process.
The health debate on nicotine has been dragging on for years, but there has been a lack of political momentum to carry out a regulation.
Scott Gottlieb, who was an FDA commissioner under President Donald Trump, proposed reducing nicotine in cigarettes in 2017 as part of a series of measures to fight tobacco.
Nicotine, he said then, is "the heart of the problem and at the same time the solution" of tobacco addiction.
“The vast majority of deaths and illnesses attributable to tobacco are caused by addiction;
it is the only legal consumer product that, if used as intended, will kill half of its users in the long run.”
But when Gottlieb left the FDA,
Supporters of reducing nicotine levels argue that this would prevent new addictions and make it easier for smokers to quit.
Instead, the companies and opponents of imposing such limits point out that lower nicotine levels can induce those who are already dependent to smoke more and also that it can encourage smuggling and the black market of cigarettes with higher levels of nicotine.