The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it is exploring ways to curb smoking rates in the United States with one idea in mind — reducing nicotine amounts in cigarettes.

The FDA called the plan “a multi-year road map to better protect kids and significantly reduce tobacco-related disease and death,” according to a release. The agency is seeking opinion from a public dialogue to find a balance between regulation and encouraging development of innovative tobacco products that may be less dangerous than cigarettes.

The current proposed strategy is that cigarette manufacturers will reduce the amount of nicotine in their products to be below an addictive level, which could curb smoking.

The FDA said one of its key findings in the plan is that nicotine is most harmful when delivered through smoke particles in combustible cigarettes.

As of 2015, about 15 percent of the U.S. population were current cigarette smokers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of current smokers, about 75 percent smoke cigarettes every day.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that addiction to cigarettes is what is to blame for the overwhelming amount of death and disease that is attributed to tobacco.

“Unless we change course, 5.6 million young people alive today will die prematurely later in life from tobacco use,” he said. “Envisioning a world where cigarettes would no longer create or sustain addiction, and where adults who still need or want nicotine could get it from alternative and less harmful sources, needs to be the cornerstone of our efforts — and we believe it’s vital that we pursue this common ground.”

The agency plans to release an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek input on any public health benefits or possible adverse effects if nicotine is lowered in cigarette production.

The release stated that officials hope the reduction of nicotine will decrease the likelihood of future generations getting addicted to cigarettes, citing research showing that almost 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18.

“Because nicotine lives at the core of both the problem and the solution to the question of addiction, addressing the addictive levels of nicotine in combustible cigarettes must be part of the FDA’s strategy for addressing the devastating, addiction crisis that is threatening American families,” Gottlieb said.

Another hope is that it will allow current smokers a better chance of being able to quit the addiction.

The FDA acknowledged at the time of release that they will be studying adverse affects. A black market for higher-nicotine cigarettes and actually causing people to smoke more cigarettes to achieve the same level of nicotine smokers are among those concerns.

Details for this story were reported by the Anderson, Indiana Herald Bulletin.