Trump’s FDA chief challenges cigarette makers with giant nicotine cut

Big Tobacco is getting an unprecedented challenge from the Trump administration. 

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed slashing nicotine — you know, that highly addictive ingredient in cigarettes — to negligible, nearly non-addictive levels. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, whom President Trump nominated to the powerful post in 2017, announced on Thursday the start of regulatory actions he said would decrease smoking rates in the U.S. from 15 percent to 1.4 percent. 

Gottlieb said previous efforts to curb smoking, though “aggressive,” still result in 480,000 American deaths each year. Read more…

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