We have known for years that smoking Cigarettes is bad for your health. Despite this knowledge, there are still a significant amount of people in the world who use cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. For many people, smoking is just a habit that's too hard to quit due to the high amount of nicotine -- the chemical that makes cigarettes so addictive. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) federal regulators hope to start bringing up the idea of lowering the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.
The hopeful future in lowering nicotine
The beginning of the idea to lower nicotine in cigarettes serves many more purposes aside from getting people to quit smoking.
In the United States, smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death. While people are noticing the opioid epidemic across the country, many fail to realize that smoking kills 15 times as many Americans every year when compared with opioids.
Lowering the amount of nicotine in cigarettes would push current smokers to stop, and stop many future smokers from starting. When smokers realize that they can't get the same nicotine rush from a cigarette, the idea is that they will pursue less harmful options to feed their addiction, such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Without a big nicotine buzz from smoking cigarettes, less people will be inclined to start smoking them. This is being proposed as the first step to a smoke-free generation.
Rather than push for everyone to drop the smoking addiction, it is finally being more recognized that an addiction is hard to stop. Taking steps to lessen addiction seems to be a step in the right direction, and leaves more room for alternatives. If the FDA is successful in lowering the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, we may see big steps coming from electronic cigarette manufacturers.
The future of e-cigarettes
While there are more regulations being pushed for cigarettes, there are regulations being pushed toward e-cigarettes. The biggest include making child-proof containers for liquid nicotine, sometimes known as juice, and setting standards for battery packs, which have been known to occasionally injure users by burning or exploding.
There is a bit of concern as to whether or not tobacco companies will fight the new FDA regulations. Fortunately, many tobacco companies have started manufacturing their own e-cigarettes. With a bit of marketing, it is a plausible idea for these companies to replace cigarettes with e-cigarettes without losing revenue.
Here's to a switch from tobacco to e-cigarettes, for a healthier country.
