{"id":18144,"date":"2024-12-11T16:05:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18144"},"modified":"2024-12-11T17:26:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:26:32","slug":"fda-tries-last-ditch-move-to-slash-nicotine-levels-in-cigarettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18144","title":{"rendered":"FDA Tries Last-Ditch Move to Slash Nicotine Levels in Cigarettes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the final days of the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking White House approval to propose a drastic reduction in the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, a longstanding goal of public health experts that has faced stiff opposition from the powerful tobacco lobby.<\/p>\n

The F.D.A. submitted the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget only on Tuesday, a sign that the move was perhaps more wishful and symbolic than realistic for a White House juggling many late-term agenda items. And traditionally, the budget office\u2019s review of agency proposals can take months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a milestone in progress toward the single most game-changing tobacco regulatory policy, in terms of lives that could be saved, that F.D.A. could ever do,\u201d said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the agency\u2019s tobacco center. \u201cHaving said that, it\u2019s only a proposed rule, and we\u2019re obviously in the waning days and weeks of an outgoing administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the F.D.A. receives clearance from the White House to advance the proposal, whether it can survive once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January is unclear given the sustained opposition from the industry. The tobacco lobby<\/a> was also a significant donor to Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign; the cigarette maker Reynolds American had given $8.5 million to his main super PAC by late October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Trump is known to personally oppose cigarette smoking, but has not weighed in recently on agency issues like nicotine levels in cigarettes. He has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his likely nominee to run the nation\u2019s top health agency, and Mr. Kennedy has railed against<\/a> federal subsidies given to tobacco growers, saying they eclipse those sent to other farmers who grow fruits and vegetables. He listed the problem as evidence that \u201cwe are just poisoning\u201d people and contributing to chronic disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes no sense if we want a healthy country,\u201d he said in a speech in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A World Health Organization study estimated<\/a> in 2023 that the U.S. Agriculture Department allocated $437 million in subsidies to tobacco farmers from 2015 through 2020.<\/p>\n

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In the final days of the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking White House approval to propose a drastic reduction in the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, a longstanding goal of public health experts that has faced stiff opposition from the powerful tobacco lobby.The F.D.A. submitted the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget only on Tuesday, a sign that the move was perhaps more wishful and symbolic than realistic for a White House juggling many late-term agenda items. And traditionally, the budget office\u2019s review of agency proposals can take months.\u201cI think it\u2019s a milestone in progress toward the single most game-changing tobacco regulatory policy, in terms of lives that could be saved, that F.D.A. could ever do,\u201d said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the agency\u2019s tobacco center. \u201cHaving said that, it\u2019s only a proposed rule, and we\u2019re obviously in the waning days and weeks of an outgoing administration.\u201dEven if the F.D.A. receives clearance from the White House to advance the proposal, whether it can survive once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January is unclear given the sustained opposition from the industry. The tobacco lobby was also a significant donor to Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign; the cigarette maker Reynolds American had given $8.5 million to his main super PAC by late October.Mr. Trump is known to personally oppose cigarette smoking, but has not weighed in recently on agency issues like nicotine levels in cigarettes. He has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his likely nominee to run the nation\u2019s top health agency, and Mr. Kennedy has railed against federal subsidies given to tobacco growers, saying they eclipse those sent to other farmers who grow fruits and vegetables. He listed the problem as evidence that \u201cwe are just poisoning\u201d people and contributing to chronic disease.\u201cIt makes no sense if we want a healthy country,\u201d he said in a speech in August.A World Health Organization study estimated in 2023 that the U.S. Agriculture Department allocated $437 million in subsidies to tobacco farmers from 2015 through 2020.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18146,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18147,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions\/18147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}