Reduced-nicotine cigarettes cuts urge of smoking

They use a small battery to power a vaporizer that turns a nicotine-water solution into an inhalable vapor – hence, “vaping” – and don’t contain any of the negative side effects, like tar and smoke, that come from traditional cigarettes, the tobacco industry claims.

The new research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also offers reassurance that smokers restricted to very low-nicotine cigarettes will not smoke more, nor inhale more deeply, to get the same addictive hit.

Smokers getting their usual dose of nicotine did not reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked daily.

One low-nicotine level – 5.2 milligrams – did not cause any change in number of cigarettes smoked from smokers’ usual brand.

And people, unwittingly most often, get around that by puffing extra hard or covering the holes with their fingers.

The Florida Youth Tobacco Survey has been put out since 1998, with state level results released every other year. “This study supports the argument for an FDA-mandated reduction in the nicotine content of cigarettes”.

No, says Donny. “Light” cigarettes use the same tobacco-with the same nicotine content-as “full-flavor” smokes.

Smokers given cigarettes with the lowest nicotine levels were twice as likely to try to quit compared to people given conventional cigarettes.

The study, the largest ever done on reduced-nicotine cigarettes, was created to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a scientific basis for cutting back on the addictive chemical in tobacco products.

Unfortunately the Supreme Court shot down the idea because the FDA didn’t have “jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products” and, since then, the majority of research has – quite sensibly – focused on finding ways to reduce the demand for tobacco products.

“I do think that breaking the connection between cigarettes and nicotine is an important direction”, Donny said.

Based on their findings, researchers concluded that nicotine content can affect cigarette use and dependence.

The experiment was done on 840 smokers who told the investigators when they signed up that they had no interest in quitting.

“Flavored tobacco products are enticing a new generation of America’s youth into nicotine addiction, condemning many of them to tobacco-related disease and early death”, said CDC Director Tom Frieden.

At the end of six weeks, those who smoked regular cigarettes – with an average amount of addictive nicotine – lit up between 22 and 21 cigarettes per day.

Almost 35 percent of those assigned to smoke very low-nicotine cigarettes for 6 weeks said they had tried to quit in the 30 days after the study ended.

Anti-smoking activists were enthusiastic about the results. “This study not only demonstrates that it’s possible to reduce addictiveness, but provides solid evidence of the level of nicotine needed to accomplish that goal”. People in the sample did not represent all types of smokers, either, which is something future studies may address.

Experts said the FDA, which funded the trial, has the legal authority to order a sweeping reduction in the nicotine content of tobacco products on the USA market.

A true causal link between the use of e-cigarettes by minors and future use of other, potentially less healthy, tobacco products would be a big blow to tobacco companies’ claim that e-cigarettes are a legitimately better-for-you alternative. We can not afford more delays that allow tobacco companies to keep targeting kids with sweet flavors and other tactics.

Longer term studies are underway, but it would appear that a low-nicotine cigarette, could be part of the answer to quitting.

But what about “light” cigarettes?

US researchers recruited more than 800 smokers at 10 sites across the country.