22nd Century Committed to Advancing FDA’s Nicotine Mandate - Seite 2

A better measurement, and one that is advanced in the FDA’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to lower dramatically the nicotine level in cigarettes, is the measurement of nicotine content. The nicotine content of a cigarette cannot be modified by smoking behavior.

22nd Century produces proprietary Very Low Nicotine content tobacco cigarettes. 22nd Century's Very Low Nicotine content cigarettes have nicotine contents as low as 0.4mg per gram of tobacco. In contrast, even other manufacturers’ previously so-called “light” or “ultra-light” cigarettes have nicotine contents 20-30 times higher at 10-15mg per gram of tobacco.

Dr. Neal Benowitz, a tobacco science expert and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, wrote an article published on August 15, 2017 in the Annals of Internal Medicine entitled “Comprehensive Nicotine Regulation to End the Combustible Tobacco Epidemic.” In the perspective article, Dr. Benowitz states that an FDA-mandated 95% reduction in nicotine content would “make it impossible to compensate by smoking cigarettes more intensively or smoking more per day.” Like many other health experts, Dr. Benowitz recognizes that compensatory smoking does not occur when the nicotine content of combustible cigarettes is reduced by 95% as compared to conventional cigarettes.

22nd Century is the only company in the world that has grown commercial crops of proprietary tobacco with nicotine levels of just 0.4mg per gram of tobacco – a 95% reduction in nicotine. Independent clinical trials using 22nd Century’s proprietary SPECTRUM research cigarettes have shown that Very Low Nicotine content cigarettes reduce cravings, reduce consumption of cigarettes, and increase quit attempts. In fact, the research done with 22nd Century’s SPECTRUM cigarettes provided the foundation for the FDA’s plan to mandate that all cigarettes sold in the United States contain only “minimally or non-addictive” levels of nicotine.

“It now seems clear that Big Tobacco companies are not willing – or able – to comply with the FDA’s bold nicotine reduction plan, despite their prior public statements to the contrary,” explained Henry Sicignano III, President and Chief Executive Officer of 22nd Century Group. “On the other hand, 22nd Century continues to grow proprietary Very Low Nicotine tobacco with 95% less nicotine. And, in order to save countless lives and in order to prevent millions of young people from becoming addicted to cigarettes, 22nd Century is 100% committed to working collaboratively with any and all tobacco companies that truly wish to address the root issue of tobacco addiction.”