"By reducing the nicotine level of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products to a level low enough to no longer create or sustain addiction, the cycle of exposure to these toxic chemicals can be broken," Brian King, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, stated during a press briefing. This reflects a significant shift in public health strategy aimed at minimizing addiction and its consequent health consequences.
"It's the tar and everything around the nicotine that poses the greatest risk to people's health," former acting CDC director Richard Besser explained. "But nicotine is what hooks you." This statement encapsulates the dual nature of nicotine as both an addictive substance and a lesser concern compared to the harmful components of tobacco.
According to the agency's estimates, capping nicotine levels at 0.7 milligrams per gram of tobacco would prevent 1.8 million tobacco-related deaths by 2060 and 4.3 million by the end of the century. This statistic highlights the potential impact of regulatory measures in saving lives and addressing public health issues surrounding smoking.
The FDA's plan to drastically limit nicotine content in cigarettes could effectively ban them in practice. As The Atlantic notes, this would change the landscape of smoking significantly by making it much harder for users to develop and maintain addiction.
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