A new study might help the push for regulations to limit nicotine in cigarettes. Smokers who switched to special low-nicotine ones wound up smoking less and were more likely to try to quit, researchers found.
The study lasted only six weeks, and researchers call the evidence preliminary. But they say it’s the first large study to show that slashing nicotine, perhaps below an addiction threshold, is safe and leads to less smoking.
The Food and Drug Administration was given the power in 2009 to mandate lower nicotine levels if it would help public health, but it has not done so.
“This, I think, provides support” for lowering nicotine, said one study leader, Dr. Neal Benowitz of the University of California-San Francisco.
“What our study shows is that it’s feasible” and that people won’t smoke more regular cigarettes to compensate, he said.
Results are in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The FDA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse paid for the study.
Smoking is a leading cause of heart disease and cancer.
Tar and other substances inhaled through smoking make cigarettes deadly, but the nicotine in tobacco is what makes them addictive.
