FDA finally acknowledges what we have known all along!! Vape On!!

FDA aims to cut nicotine in cigarettes, shift toward e-cigarettes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes and move smokers toward potentially less harmful e-cigarettes, in a major regulatory shift announced on Friday that sent tobacco stocks plunging.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb outlined a package of measures the agency plans to explore, embracing the idea that e-cigarettes may benefit public health by reducing smoking rates.

“Nicotine itself is not responsible for the cancer, the lung disease and heart disease that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year,” he said. “It’s the other chemical compounds in tobacco and in the smoke created by setting tobacco on fire that directly cause illness and death.”

The FDA’s move to consider reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes sent shares of major tobacco companies in the United States and UK plummeting in heavy trading volume, with the world’s biggest producers poised to lose about $60 billion of market value.

The agency cannot reduce nicotine levels to zero, nor can it ban cigarettes, but Gottlieb said the FDA would study regulating nicotine levels in an attempt to make cigarettes less addictive.

The announcement sets in motion a lengthy rule-making process that will involve public comment and input from multiple stakeholders before any measures take effect.

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