In a couple of months' time, health officials in Brussels will circulate drafts for rules that will govern how much tar and nicotine Europe's cigarettes may contain, and what information about their chemical make-up should be printed on the packets. And in the US, the Food and Drug Administration has for years made no secret of its desire to regulate cigarettes in the same way as pharmaceuticals. However, acquiring the political and legal power to redesign cigarettes is one thing. Deciding how to redesign them to make them safer is quite another. Some of the many improvements that are on the cards are uncontroversial.
Cigarette smoke contains specific cancer-causing chemicals.
Consumers surely have a right to know which brands contain the highest or lowest levels of these chemicals. But officials must resist the urge to enforce the gradual removal of nicotine from cigarettes to create the tobacco equivalent of decaffeinated coffee. The American Medical Association is a big fan of this approach and it is certainly technically feasible. Some denicotinised cigarettes are already on sale. The problem, as study after study shows, is that when smokers are given cigarettes low in nicotine, they compensate by smoking more cigarettes or inhaling smoke more deeply.