Late rule to lower nicotine in cigarettes clears hurdle
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The Biden administration is a step closer to lowering the amount of nicotine in cigarettes after an 11th-hour proposal cleared a key White House review.
Why it matters: The Food and Drug Administration rule, whose precise language hasn't been made public, offers the administration one more chance to address the harms of smoking after it punted on banning menthol in tobacco products.
Catch up quick: In 2022, the agency announced plans to limit nicotine levels in tobacco products saying an FDA paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine projected a nicotine product standard could result in a smoking rate of only 1.4% by 2100.
- The proposal cleared an Office of Management and Budget review on Friday, paving the way for FDA commissioner Robert Califf to issue it before the Trump administration takes control.
Data suggests many smokers would migrate to products that carry less harm, such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, or kick the habit altogether, said Dorothy Hatsukami, a professor at the University of Minnesota who researches tobacco policy.
- "People do quit as a result of smoking these minimally addictive cigarettes. And so there are some potentially real positive effects by having this nicotine product standard," she said.
Some have suggested a reduction of as much as 95% in nicotine from what's currently found on the market, essentially rendering them nonaddictive. Studies have also examined whether it would make more sense to gradually reduce the nicotine content allowed in tobacco products or to have a hard deadline, Hatsukami said.
- Public health advocates setting any standard would be a step forward, since no limits currently exist.
- "Limiting the amount of nicotine, or at least quantifying the amount of nicotine put in the cigarettes, would be a huge deal to reduce the addictive nature of the products," David Margolius, Cleveland's director of public health and a member of the Big Cities Health Coalition, told Axios.
The other side: "The Biden administration is essentially planning to deliver an $80 billion market and 29 or so million American consumers to Mexican cartels and the Chinese Communist Party," Guy Bentley, who oversees consumer issues at the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation, told Axios.
- He called a nicotine limit a practical "ban" of cigarettes in the U.S. that would almost certainly fuel a black market, pointing to the proliferation of illicit products that followed FDA efforts to curb youth vaping.
- Tobacco giant Altria has previously said an FDA nicotine rule could have "unintended consequences" and suggested the agency should instead focus on steering adult smokers toward harm reduction products.
The bottom line: The move to address nicotine levels may be too little too late.
- The proposal could be dialed back by the incoming Trump administration. Trump indicated support for the vaping industry during his campaign last year.
- "It's just been really frustrating. The can was kicked again and again and it was always 'Now is not the right moment,'" Margolius said. "I think it was clear to the public health community that there was never going to be a better moment than right now, whatever that now was, because people are dying from smoking-related illness every day."
