Oregon Research Institute

Evaluating New Nicotine Standards for Cigarettes-Project 2

Investigators are looking at the effects of smoking a reduced nicotine cigarette. This research may help inform the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) how best to regulate cigarettes in the future with the goal of improving public health.

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The continued high prevalence of smoking and the high percentage of smokers who have problems with quitting call for innovative approaches to tobacco control. Reducing nicotine content in cigarettes to the level that they are non-addictive may have a profound impact on public health.

In this multi-site, double-blind clinical trial senior scientist Herb Severson and his team are examining what happens when the nicotine levels in cigarettes change over time. They compare those effects on smoking and health to smoking cigarettes with a typical level of nicotine. The study examines how the rate of change in nicotine level over time affects smoking behavior and tobacco related health risk.

This two-year grant is a subaward with the University of Minnesota from the University of Pittsburgh from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).