November 8, 2017 – Low Nicotine Smokes

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Anchor lead: What is the rationale for low nicotine cigarettes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Can reducing nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes induce people to quit? That’s the hope of Scott Gottleib, FDA commissioner, in a recent announcement of this strategy as part of the agency’s regulatory authority. Enid Neptune, a lung expert and antismoking advocate at Johns Hopkins, says she sees some issues.

Neptune: If you’re going to have a low nicotine policy that’s saying first, that you can reduce nicotine to a level that’s nonaddictive. From a physiological standpoint it’s not clear that that’s even achievable on a population scale. Your level of addiction may be very different from mine. And then there’s the whole issue of do you do this over five years, one year? How long will people have to be exposed to combustible cigarettes for this to even be achievable?  :29

Nepture says she would be more comfortable with a comprehensive plan that also includes cessation of e-cigarette use over time. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.