Will low-nicotine cigarettes actually help smokers quit?
Last week, the FDA announced an initiative to lower nicotine in cigarettes to “minimally or non-addictive levels,” in an effort to keep new smokers from getting hooked and wean current addicts from the unhealthy habit.
But will it really help longtime smokers who are already dependent on daily doses of nicotine?
“[The FDA initiative] is going to help people who aren’t smoking yet,” more than it will help regular smokers, Dr. Donna Shelley of NYU Langone’s tobacco cessation program tells The Post.
Furthermore, she acknowledges that some smokers could choose to simply smoke more to get their fix.
“It’s a complicated issue,” Shelley says. “Studies have shown that smokers given low-nicotine cigarettes do not necessarily smoke more cigarettes per day than people given cigarettes with the normal level of nicotine.”
Scientists who research addiction are optimistic. Dramatically reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes could lead to “substantial reduction in tobacco-related mortality,” according to an analysis published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Those researchers believe that approximately 5 million additional adult smokers could quit smoking within a year of implementation.
Cigarette addiction is estimated to kill about 480,000 Americans each year, according to data from 2014.
Although Shelley hopes consumers won’t view the new, low-dose cigarettes as “healthy” smokes — “There’s no safe level of cigarette smoking, period,” she says — she believes the good outweighs any potential risks with this FDA effort.
“I think it’s a landmark decision,” she says. “It’s really a first step in decreasing the number of Americans in this country who are addicted to nicotine.”