Public Comment Periods Open On Sweeping New Tobacco Plan

What’s the story?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed a comprehensive, and potentially groundbreaking, plan to combat tobacco addiction in the United States. Nicotine levels in cigarettes, alternative nicotine-delivery products, nicotine cessation methods, flavorings and other features shown to target kids -- it’s all in there.

They’ve initiated the first public comment periods on the plan, with more to follow, so now’s the time to weigh in on a policy that FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called potentially "one of the biggest public health victories in modern history."

In a statement Gottlieb outlined the impact of tobacco use on public health and the economy:

• Tobacco use – largely cigarette smoking – kills more than 480,000 Americans every single year

• Tobacco use also costs nearly $300 billion a year in direct health care and lost productivity

He also outlined the potential impact of the FDA’s comprehensive plan:

• 5 million additional adult smokers could quit smoking within one year of implementation

• By the year 2100, more than 33 million people – mostly youth and young adults – would have avoided becoming regular smokers

• Smoking rates could drop from the current 15 percent to as low as 1.4 percent

• Prevention of more than 8 million tobacco-caused deaths through the end of the century

Comments are currently being solicited via the federal register on the aspect of the plan concerning nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes. The plan seeks to enact regulation that will set a maximum amount of nicotine cigarettes can have, reports Vox, with the goal of reducing the level of nicotine in combustible cigarettes to non-addictive levels.

Some of the questions Gottlieb states that he is hoping public comments will address include:

• What potential maximum nicotine level would be appropriate for the protection of public health?

• Should a product standard be implemented all at once or gradually?

• What unintended consequences – such as the potential for illicit trade or for addicted smokers to compensate for lower nicotine by smoking more – might occur as a result?

Public comments are due by June 14, 2018

The public comment period is also open on the role that flavors – including menthol – play in initiation, use and cessation of tobacco products. Are they being used to market to kids? Could they be used to move smokers to less harmful nicotine-delivery products? Public comments are due by June 19, 2018.

A public comment period soliciting comments and data related to the regulation of premium cigars has not yet been published via the FDA’s page in the federal register.

What do you think?

Do you support the FDA’s plan to combat tobacco deaths or not? Do you like some aspects of the plan and not others? What do you think of forcing cigarette manufacturers to re-engineer their products to make them non-addictive? What about flavorings in cigarettes or liquid nicotine products?

Make a comment on the federal register!

Tell us in the comments what you think, then use the Take Action button to tell your reps!

Take Action

— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: .jocelyn. via Flickr / Creative Commons)