FDA Takes ‘Pivotal Step’ in Plan to Cut Nicotine in Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is pushing ahead with a plan to make cigarettes less addictive, a move that threatens to upend the tobacco industry and accelerate a shift toward new smoking technology.

The agency announced last summer that it wants to cut nicotine levels in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels. Thursday’s move, called an advance notice of proposed rule-making, is a first step in the complicated federal regulatory process. The public now has 90 days to comment on questions about the proposal and what level the upper limit should be.

Slashing the addictive substance could cause about 5 million ...