Cigarette
smoking kills nearly a half-million Americans every year and costs the U.S.
economy $300 billion in health care and lost productivity, according to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To help
smokers kick the deadly habit and stop kids from starting, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration proposed rules Thursday to cut the nicotine in cigarettes
to minimal or no addictive levels.
“This
milestone places us squarely on the road toward achieving one of the biggest
public health victories in modern history and saving millions of lives in the
process,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Thursday.
He said
the FDA has a “vision of a world where combustible cigarettes would no longer
create or sustain addiction.”
Legal authority
The FDA
has the legal authority to regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes, but has
always been met by court challenges from tobacco companies.
Nicotine
naturally occurs in tobacco. It is not deadly but is a highly addictive drug
that helps make cigarettes so pleasurable to smokers.
It is
the burning tobacco leaf and the numerous additives used in cigarettes that
lead to lung cancer, emphysema, and other deadly diseases and cancers.
Secondhand
smoke from cigarettes is also harmful to children and potentially lethal to
adults.
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