Reducing the nicotine levels in cigarettes could lower cigarette use, according to new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study was conducted by University of Pittsburgh researcher Eric Donny, Ph.D., and Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D., of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, along with 8 other sites including the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
The blinded study followed smokers for six weeks, randomly assigning them either their usual brand or one of the investigational cigarettes varying in nicotine content. The six study-designed cigarettes ranged from a nicotine content of 15.8 mg/g tobacco, which is typical of commercial brands, down to 0.4 mg/g.
After the six weeks, smokers who’d been assigned the cigarettes with the three lowest nicotine levels were smoking fewer cigarettes than those using the study cigarettes with nicotine content similar to commercial brands of cigarettes. The people smoking the lowest nicotine level cigarettes noted reduced dependence on cigarettes and greater number of smoking quit attempts.
“This finding is incredibly promising, and part of a series of investigations designed to provide scientific support to establish a product standard to reduce nicotine levels in all cigarettes sold in the U.S.,” said Hatsukami. “The Food and Drug Administration now has the authority to set such a standard and by doing so, we can save hundreds of thousands of lives each year from cigarette-caused deaths.”
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