CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) - An FDA proposal Wednesday calls for drastically lowering nicotine levels in cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products sold in the US. If finalized, this change could greatly reduce the number of new smokers and potentially help current smokers quit. "It's going to offset what they're already doing to themselves. I think it's a step in the right direction," said Alfonso Rodriguez of South Hadley. Every year, smoking causes over 480,000 deaths in the US, according to CDC. Tobacco releases toxins when burned and can lead to cancer, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. "They're just they're the tars. They're just soot that sits in the lung and just destroys the lung tissue and the heart muscle," said Family Nurse Practitioner at Priority Urgent Care in Chicopee, Dawn Kohanski. To reduce this trend, the FDA wants to limit nicotine in tobacco products to only 0.07 milligrams. Cigarettes, most cigars, and pipe tobacco would have a 95% nicotine reduction. It was during President-elect Donald Trump's first term that the idea of limiting nicotine levels in cigarettes first emerged. Therefore, the change could proceed in four years. "People who are literally in their forties, fifties and sixties, who really truly want to quit, it's going to make it that much easier for them to quit. And then the treatments that we can offer to help people quit smoking are going to be that much more effective to help them to quit," said Kohanski. They will also experience less symptoms of withdrawal like headaches and shaking. But the limit doesn't apply to e-cigarettes, vaping products, hookahs or nicotine pouches like Zyn. "Those vapes are doing just as much damage, may not have the carcinogenic toxics like cigarettes do but they're still doing the same damage to the lungs that Cigarettes are doing with the nicotine content," explained Kohanski. Health officials say they'd like to see the FDA decrease the nicotine level in vapes in the proposal as well. The incoming Trump administration will have to finalize the FDA's proposed rule after public comment, which ends September 15th. Local News Headlines FDA proposal calls for drastically lowering nicotine levels in cigarettes How to get your Real ID before the May deadline Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts brings supplies to victims of Hurricane Helene Dress for Success Western Massachusetts opens new career center in downtown Springfield WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.