Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern’s response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Will the FDA’s proposed nicotine regulation spell the end for smoking in the U.S.?

People in this story

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed regulations that would establish a maximum nicotine level for cigarettes and other tobacco products. By requiring companies to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, the regulation would be one of the most significant efforts to reduce smoking in the U.S. in decades and would deal a significant blow to the $95 billion tobacco industry.

“Nicotine is powerfully addictive,” Robert Califf, commissioner of the FDA, said in a statement. “Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit.” 

The FDA has stated its intent to issue the rule by May 2023, but the process of adopting a rule like this requires a years-long process of public comments and courtroom action. Richard Daynard, Northeastern distinguished professor of law, anticipates the proposal will become law by 2027, but he says the tobacco industry will not go down without a fight. “They ain’t gonna like it,” Daynard says of the cigarette companies.

Continue reading at News@Northeastern.

More Stories

Northeastern professor Brandon Welsh’s book Between Medicine and Criminology explores the history of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

New book from Northeastern professor looks at history of groundbreaking criminology study

05.12.2025
New Pope Leo XIV is introduced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on May 8, 2025. (Sipa via AP Images)

As an American, what kind of influence can Pope Leo XIV wield in the Catholic Church?

05.08.2025
Caution tape

Is a serial killer stalking New England? Northeastern experts say the evidence doesn’t add up

05.13.25
All Stories