Reducing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes may lead some current smokers to smoke more – at least in the short term. But there’s also evidence that reducing nicotine in cigarettes can help reduce smoking.

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. According to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana’s already high smoking rate has gotten worse, in contrast to declines in most other states. That is bad news for Hoosiers and our state’s economy. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and takes a heavy toll on Indiana especially. An estimated 11,100 Hoosiers die each year from smoking, and an additional 1,400 nonsmokers die annually from exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking in Indiana also translates to $3.3 billion annually in healthcare costs and another […]