News from the Noteworthy from Tobacco Free Communities: Delaware, Otsego & Schoharie

FDA Rule Could End Smoking, Save Millions

Millions of lives could be saved if one rule by the Food and Drug Administration is enacted: reducing nicotine content in cigarettes and cigars to non-addictive or minimally addictive levels. The FDA submitted that rule to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in mid-December. [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-16/pdf/2025-00397.pdf] If OMB approves it, the rule becomes law.

Most of us know it is the smoke in cigarettes and other tobacco combustibles that cause more than 16 million Americans to get tobacco-related diseases and about 480,000 Americans to die of them annually, 10 percent of whom did not smoke.

But it is the nicotine that hooks people and keeps them hooked for most or all of their life spans. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on earth—more addictive than cocaine or heroin. Two important factors have made it even harder for tobacco users, especially smokers, to quit. One is that about 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking by age 18, with 13 still the average starting age. When adolescents initiate tobacco use, they become addicted more quickly and have a harder time quitting than adults over age 18 or even 24.