Department News

Higgins Interviewed by WCAX about Nicotine Study

August 18, 2022 by Lucy Gardner Carson

(AUGUST 18, 2022) “Cigarette smoking — that’s the largest killer in terms of tobacco products,” Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychological science and director of UVM’s Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH), told WCAX-TV Channel 3.

Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychological science and director of UVM’s Vermont Center on Behavior and Health

(AUGUST 18, 2022) “Cigarette smoking — that’s the largest killer in terms of tobacco products,” Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychological science and director of UVM’s Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH), told WCAX-TV Channel 3. “In the United States alone, almost 500,000 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses.”

Researchers at VCBH, part of UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, are helping the FDA examine how lowering nicotine levels in cigarettes and e-cigarettes affects people’s need to smoke. Higgins says if these studies prove that cutting nicotine levels will reduce smoking nationwide, the FDA will move forward with a proposal they hope will curb nicotine addiction.