NACS sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) providing comments on the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Yield of Cigarettes and Certain Other Tobacco Products proposed rule. The comments pressed the FDA to withdraw its proposal, which would dramatically reduce the level of nicotine allowed in cigarettes and non-premium cigars. The result of these reductions would be that all such current products would need to be pulled from the marketplace, creating a de facto ban while manufacturers attempt to reformulate their products and gain regulatory approval to reintroduce them.

NACS believes that the FDA has failed to consider the impact the ban will have in fueling the illicit tobacco trade and the negative costs that will follow. The proposal seeks to prohibit the use of cigarettes and non-premium cigars currently on the market without a clear plan for approving reduced-nicotine alternatives, and it is unrealistic to assume that demand for these products will disappear. Instead, NACS warns, an illicit market will emerge, creating a larger regulatory challenge than the FDA hopes to solve.

Additionally, NACS emphasized that convenience store owners—many of whom operate small businesses—would face serious challenges. The letter states:

“NACS’ members are consumer-facing entities that constantly adapt to changing consumer demands and are thus effective surrogates for consumers. It is important to remember that offering a product for sale does not guarantee that consumers will purchase it. By requiring the reduction of nicotine, these regulations will ban all of the cigarettes, non-premium cigars, cigarette tobacco, roll your own tobacco and pipe tobacco currently on the market in the United States, which will push a huge portion of current smokers to the illicit market which will undermine the progress made on reducing youth smoking and severely injure the convenience store industry. The growth of the illicit market also will undermine FDA’s goals in putting forward the Proposed Rule. For those reasons and as further explained below, NACS opposes the Proposed Rule and strongly urges FDA to withdraw it.”

NACS said it will continue to follow the issue closely and report whether the FDA decides to withdraw the proposal or move it forward.

NACS offers tobacco and nicotine resources here.