A bill introduced in the Hawaii State Legislature could make the state the first in the nation to establish nicotine limits.
Last Friday, S.B. 1165 was introduced by Sen. Chris Lee, D-Kailua. It came just a few days after the announcement by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that the federal agency was advancing a proposal that could establish nicotine limits for products sold throughout the United States. While the federal proposal is probably further away from becoming law, the Hawaii proposal is much shorter and lacks most details.
The bill, which is less than a half-page long, would direct the Department of Health to determine a standard for “safe levels” of nicotine in products that are sold in Hawaii, reports Halfwheel. The bill does not provide any guidance as to what the level would be or what specific products it would affect.
By contrast, the federal proposal is asking for comment on a standard of .7 mg per gram of tobacco. The FDA says that the average nicotine content for “top 100 cigarette brands” in 2017 was 17.2 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco.
Due to litigation, the federal proposal would not apply to “premium cigars,” which the FDA defines using an eight-part standard that includes requirements for whole leaf wrapper and binder as well as no characterizing flavor other than tobacco. As it is written, the Hawaii proposal would likely apply to premium cigars.
The state has also proposed a bill to ban nicotine products to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2005.





