RICHMOND, VA - After one year of overseeing tobacco regulation, one group feels that the FDA is far from taking aggressive steps to reduce smoking, the Associated Press reports.

Such had been the goal of anti-tobacco advocates last June when President Obama signed a law delegating the oversight responsibility to the agency. However, to date, the FDA has moved slowly in assessing scientific evidence for what would best improve public health, and whether that includes reducing nicotine levels, banning menthol cigarettes or other actions.

However, the agency has taken other measures, including limiting the marketing of tobacco products, especially to children, banning flavored cigarettes, removing labels such as "light," "mild," and "low-tar" from cigarette packs and increasing the size of warning labels on smokeless tobacco.

In that regard, the FDA has made progress that will lead to positive health effects, said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. And while the law doesn't allow the FDA to ban nicotine or tobacco outright, it could reduce nicotine to non-addictive levels, which is something that former FDA Commissioner David Kessler would like to see.

"The tobacco industry knew 40 years ago that there was a threshold below which people would quit," Kessler said. "Reducing the level of nicotine in cigarettes will change cigarette smoking as we know it. It is the ultimate harm reduction strategy."

Kessler said that smokers typically ingest between one to three milligrams of nicotine per cigarette, an amount he would like to see lowered to between 1 and 0.5 milligrams.

For more on the new FDA regulations that took effect June 22, see the NACS Magazine feature "New Rules for Tobacco Retailing."