The FDA moved to lower nicotine in cigarettes to make them less addictive with a new rule proposal announced Thursday.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told reporters that the agency proposed the rule change, which begins a lengthy bureaucratic process to lower levels of the drug to non-addictive or minimally addictive levels, NBC News reported.
"Today's milestone places us on the road to achieving one of the biggest public health victories by saving millions of lives," Gottlieb said, adding that he had asked for input about the potential, unforeseen consequences of the rule change as part of the process, NBC News reported.
The FDA does not have the power to ban cigarettes or tobacco products, but was given some powers of regulation over them by Congress in 2009. It has moved gradually since then to put more limits on tobacco sales and marketing, NBC News reported.
"We believe the public health benefits and the potential to save millions of lives, both in the near and long terms, support this effort," Gottlieb said, NBC News reported.
Smoking has fallen to an all-time low of only 15 percent of U.S. adults using tobacco, The Washington Post reported. Use among young people is also historically low, although smoking continues to cause 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S.
No other countries have proposed reducing nicotine in cigarettes, according to Matthew Myers, who is president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Post reported.
"It would be the most significant public health proposal we have seen from the U.S. government in the last 20 years," Myers said.
Gottlieb admitted that people might smoke more of the low-nicotine cigarettes to get the same effect, as well as the possibility that a black market for high-nicotine cigarettes might develop, the Post reported.