Nicotine, Tar, and CO Content

On May 7th, I sent the following email to AskCTP@fda.hhs.gov, the address listed for general inquiries on the FDA Tobacco Products page . To Whom it may Concern: According to the Timeline of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act at http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/ucm237395.htm , the following was to be done by April of 2013: Publish the list of harmful and potentially harmful constituents in a format that is understandable and not misleading to the lay public – Sec. 904(a)(3)25, 904(d)(1)26, 904(e)27 If this has been done, can you tell me where it was published (the online location if available)? If not, can you tell me when it is planned to be published? The same day, I got the following reply: Thank you for your email. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA an extraordinary opportunity to improve the health of all Americans, whether they use tobacco or not. One of the goals of the law is t...

On June 17, 2010, the Washington Post printed a story titled "FDA should use its power to lower nicotine in cigarettes, former chief says" . Following is an excerpt: David A. Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, said Wednesday that the agency's efforts to date are laudable but "marginal" compared with what the agency has the legal authority to do -- reduce nicotine levels to the point where a smoker no longer craves cigarettes . "If you do this, you can save 200,000 to 300,000 lives a year," Kessler said. "Everything else pales in comparison. " The Washington Post story is referenced by an allgov.com post titled "Is It Time to Limit Nicotine Levels in Cigarettes?" . The first comment to this post begins as follows: We need to be extremely careful here. While the one year-old Family Smoking Prevention Act forbids the FDA from "requiring the reduction of nicotine yields of a tobacco product to zero," common sense screams th...

A google search of "low-tar cigarettes" results in numerous matches, the majority of which appear to be negative on their usefulness, saying that they are no less hazardous than regular-tar cigarettes. In fact, some of the matching articles suggest that switching to low-tar cigarettes halves the chance of quitting smoking. However, this conclusion is contradicted by some other studies such as this one which states the following: Smoking and health experts have been concerned that reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes would lead to smoking a greater number of cigarettes and therefore increased exposure to other tobacco smoke toxins, as is seen in smokers of the currently marketed low-nicotine yield cigarettes, Benowitz said. The new research on reduced-nicotine content cigarettes strongly counters that prediction. Another article , titled "Could FDA reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes?", states the following: Another strategy might be to reduce the harm fr...

This blog is connected with the web site at http://www.econdataus.com/smoke.html . The main purpose of that web site is to provide information on the nicotine, tar, and CO content of domestic (U.S.) cigarettes. Most e-mails that I have received have contained questions or information that would likely be useful to other people interested in this topic. Hence, the main purpose of this blog is to provide an open forum for such questions and information.