Low-Nicotine Cigarettes Could Help Smokers Quit..

November 16, 2007 - The progressive reduction of the nicotine content of cigarettes has been suggested as a way to wean smokers from nicotine and tobacco. (Clin Pharmacol Ther 80(6):703-714, 2006) In this study, 20 healthy adult smokers were asked to smoke their usual brand for a week. They were then put on a six week regimen of smoking cigarettes with progressively lower levels of nicotine. At the end of the six weeks, they were free to return to their usual brand and most did. But tested a month later, they were smoking forty per cent fewer cigarettes per day than they did before the study. Furthermore, a quarter of the smokers quit their habit entirely while the study was in progress. Professor Neal Benowitz, who led the research team from the University of California at San Francisco, said: "This study supports the idea that if tobacco companies were required to reduce the levels of nicotine in cigarette tobacco, young people who start smoking could avoid becoming addicted, and current smokers could reduce or end their smoking." The new findings provide support for plans now under discussion in U.S Congress to allow tobacco products to be regulated in the US in the same way as medicines. (USA: New Study Suggests That Low-Nicotine Cigarettes Could Help Smokers Quit, Medical News Today, 11/15/2007)