Media Contact:
Megan Manning
manningm@ash.org
Statement from Laurent Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health
January 15, 2025
Action on Smoking and Health welcomes the Biden administration’s proposed rule to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels. Nearly half a million people in the U.S. die each year from cigarettes, by far the leading cause of preventable death, and over 16 million suffer from tobacco-induced disease. Reducing nicotine is one of the most impactful ways to help people quit to save their lives.
People who smoke cigarettes do so because of nicotine addiction. Nicotine is among the most addictive chemicals known to science, more so than cocaine or heroin. Nearly all adults who smoke cigarettes became addicted to nicotine when they were children. Most want to quit, wish they had never started, and are desperate that their kids don’t get hooked. If addictive levels of nicotine were absent from cigarettes, most users would finally be able to quit.
The tobacco industry has spent decades refining cigarettes to make them as addictive as possible. As the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress noted, because of the increase in addictiveness, cigarettes today are far more dangerous than they were at the time of the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health.
A business model based on addiction is immoral and a violation of basic human rights, particularly given the tobacco industry’s efforts to addict children. If a new product was introduced to the market tomorrow that was highly addictive and killed when used as intended society would surely not stand for it.
Today’s move by the Biden Administration and US FDA shows they agree that we cannot stand for the continued carnage the tobacco industry causes in the name of profit.
Cigarettes are a financial burden, both to individuals who smoke and everyone else. The total annual cost of tobacco in the U.S. is $436 billion, or $1,100 per person. This is a 2.1% drag on U.S. gross domestic product. Tobacco is also a major contributor to climate change and pollution. The number one source of plastic pollution worldwide is cigarette butts. Butts are highly toxic, are a major source of microplastics, a source for nicotine into the environment, and cannot be recycled.
Making cigarettes non-addictive is simple and would result in huge improvements in public health, the economy and the environment. We do not need to put up with this any longer. Everyone has lost someone due to cigarettes. It’s time to put an end to the tobacco epidemic.
Statement from Carolyn Dresler, MD ASH Board Trustee and retired Thoracic Surgical Oncologist
January 15, 2025
Thank you to the Biden Administration and US FDA for your bold action to save lives from preventable tobacco-related illnesses.
The average age of my patients when I started as a thoracic surgeon, specializing in lung cancer, was 65 and the 5-year survival rate was 15%. In the U.S., 65 is also the average age of retirement. This means that while the tobacco industry was raking in billions of dollars annually, I was sitting in my clinic giving devasting news to recent retirees who thought they were starting an exciting new chapter of retirement but were instead facing the hard truth that comes from a spot on their lungs.
Tobacco-related diseases are preventable.
We need strong tobacco control policies, like the Biden Administration is proposing today, and robust cessation support.
Across the U.S., Americans do not have equal access to tobacco cessation support. And the majority of people who smoke want desperately to quit.
With every strong policy enacted, like today, we must also make clear strides to strengthen equitable tobacco cessation access and support for all Americans.
