The FDA will be looking at reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes to combat addiction. Two questions: Do you smoke cigarettes, and (either way) do you support this move by the FDA?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cigarettes-nicotine-20170728-story.html
U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb directed the agency's staff Friday to develop new regulations on nicotine. The FDA has had the power since 2009 to regulate nicotine levels, but so far it hasn't done so.
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Gottlieb also said the FDA is giving e-cigarette makers four more years to comply with a review of products already on the market. The agency needs to concentrate on nicotine regulation and not be distracted by the debate on whether e-cigarettes help smokers quit, he said.
“I’ve pledged a deep commitment to taking aggressive steps to address the epidemic of addiction to opioids,” Gottlieb said earlier Friday. “I view our opportunity to confront addiction to nicotine with the same obligation. I’ll pursue efforts to reduce addiction to nicotine with the same vigor.”
Passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by then-President Obama in 2009, the tobacco law gives the FDA “the authority to regulate the levels of tar, nicotine and other harmful components of tobacco products.” Yet until now, that authority hasn’t been so broadly used.
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At the same time, the agency is making a nicotine-related compromise that has some anti-smoking advocates worried. The FDA said it will push back by five years until 2022 a deadline for electronic cigarette companies to submit applications to the FDA.
President Trump nominated Scott Gottlieb in early March but it took until May 9th for him to get confirmed on a partisan 57-42 vote - Democrats largely opposed him. The guy moved fast - it took him only two and a half months to set this new direction, which to me looks like it has two main points - regulate nicotine levels (lower) in cigarettes and stop worrying about regulating e-cigarettes, at least for now.
We all know Trump's view on cigarette smoking. I'd like to hear from Trump supporters on how they feel about this - the bit whether or not you smoke can be ignored if you'd rather not answer but of course I'd be curious about current smokers since this may affect you most directly.
EDIT:
An additional piece of information to consider, of course feel free to link opposing scientific studies:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-reduced-nicotine-cigarettes-20150930-story.html
The new research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also offers reassurance that smokers restricted to very low-nicotine cigarettes will not smoke more, nor inhale more deeply, to get the same addictive hit.
In an unusual clinical trial, longtime smokers who were assigned to smoke cigarettes with less than 15% of the nicotine in typical cigarettes saw their tobacco dependence drop by as much as 20% after six weeks.
Separately, smokers getting their usual dose of nicotine did not reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked daily. But those who got low-nicotine cigarettes smoked 23% to 33% fewer cigarettes daily, with “minimal evidence of withdrawal-related discomfort,” the researchers reported.
Posted Jul 31, 2017, 2:43 PM UTC · edited