The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking to limit nicotine levels in cigarettes and other products with a new rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to limit the level of nicotine that cigarettes and other tobacco products can contain.

The agency is looking to do just that through Wednesday’s proposed rule Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Dr Robert Califf said it “could save many lives and significantly reduce the burden of severe disease and disability, while saving huge sums of money” if it is completed.

Cigarettes and “certain other combusted tobacco products” would not be allowed to have more than 0.7 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco under the proposed rule, according to the FDA. The agency said the nicotine level would be “low enough to not cause or sustain addiction.”

Cigarette tobacco, rolled tobacco, most cigars, and pipe tobacco are among the combusted tobacco products that would be subject to the nicotine limit in addition to cigarettes.

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The FDA wants the rule to take effect two years after a final rule on the issue is published.

Citing public health models, the agency projected that the rule could “prevent approximately 48 million American youth and young adults from starting to smoke” by the beginning of the next century.

If finalized, it could also prompt more than 12.9 million smokers to ditch cigarettes, “including those who would completely switch to non-combusted tobacco products” a year after it takes effect, the FDA said.

The agency said switching to “less hazardous tobacco products” would “reduce exposure to many of the harmful chemicals found in cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products” among adult smokers.

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Reduction has the power to help avoid 1.8 million tobacco-related deaths By 2060, according to the agency.

“This proposal allows us to begin an important conversation about how to meaningfully address one of the deadliest consumer products in history and profoundly change the landscape of tobacco product use in the United States,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. statement.

The US Food and Drug Administration has previously indicated its desire to continue limiting levels of tobacco in cigarettes.

The agency said Wednesday’s proposed rule “would not ban” cigarettes or other similar products.

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reconnaissance Published by Gallup In August, 11% of US adults had smoked cigarettes in the past week. At the same time, 7% reported Use of electronic cigarettesHe said.

E-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, unburned cigarettes, hookah tobacco, smokeless tobacco products and premium cigars would not be affected by the proposed rule, according to the FDA.

The rule will be open for public comment starting Thursday through Sept. 15, the agency said.