ZYN pouches are growing in popularity.
There are multiple brands of nicotine pouches, but ZYN has recently exploded on platforms like TikTok, with videos on the topic garnering 292.6 million views.
The intent of these products is to provide a nicotine source aside from a traditional cigarette, Irfan Rahman, Ph.D, who runs a lab that conducts research on toxicants at the University of Rochester Medicine, told Health.
That said, the products have not been sufficiently studied.
“There’s no data available,” Rahman said. “If somebody’s saying that, they’re making up data.”
People use nicotine pouches by placing them in their mouths, between the top lip and the gums.
These pouches come in popular flavors like wintergreen and cinnamon; experts say this might make the pouches attractive to younger populations who may not yet understand the risks of nicotine.
ZYN pouches may seem harmless since they don’t contain tobacco like traditional cigarettes, but the nicotine contents still pose health risks, including addiction.
When a person addicted to nicotine goes without it for too long, they can experience irritability, depression, anxiety, craving, sleep disturbances, increased appetite, and cognitive and attention deficits.
It can also increase your heart rate, Neil Schachter, MD, a pulmonologist at Mount Sinai, told Health.
“Nicotine is a pharmacological product, which has serious physiological consequences to it,” he said.
Though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently cracked down on vapes, nicotine products, in general, are not slowing down.
From 2019 to 2022, nicotine pouch sales grew from about 126 million to 808 million units, according to data from November 2022.
Here’s what consumers should know about ZYN pouches, including the potential dangers of the product.
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Nicotine replacement products—such as patches placed on the skin or lozenges—have helped many people stop smoking cigarettes, Schachter said.
“In general, people do better when they go through a physician or program to help them stop, but the vast majority of people who stop do it on their own,” he explained. “They quit cold turkey or with some nicotine replacement [product].”
The purpose of e-cigarettes or vaping products was to help people stop smoking cigarettes. And ultimately, though these products may be beneficial to people addicted to cigarettes, they also pose health risks.
“Since [people started] using non-burning cigarettes, we found there are many other problems that have arisen from the additives they have to put in it so it will be vaporized,” Schachter said. “There have been many very serious health problems, with some people hospitalized, admitted to the ICU, and even deaths as a result.”
ZYN pouches were first available in 2014, and other popular nicotine pouch brands like on! and Rogue were subsequently released.
ZYN pouches are marketed as an alternative to smoking for people who are already consuming nicotine.
A small new study published earlier this month in the journal Addiction looked at how a group of cigarette smokers responded to nicotine pouch use.
The research team found that smoking cigarettes more immediately curbed participants’ nicotine cravings when compared to nicotine pouches—meaning people trying to quit smoking cigarettes may not find the products beneficial.
“Overall, participants had a moderate rating of the nicotine pouches and didn’t love or hate them, but nicotine pouches didn’t do as good a job at craving withdrawal,” Brittney Keller-Hamilton, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Public Health and an author on the new report, told Health.
Using nicotine at the recommendation of a healthcare provider, no matter your age, is always recommended.
“Under medical supervision, it’s less likely a person’s going to abuse or use [the product] in an inappropriate way,” Schachter explained.
Health authorities should emphasize who may benefit from any nicotine product—and who should avoid them.
“Anybody who doesn’t already use nicotine should not start using nicotine,” Keller-Hamilton said.
Regulatory authorities typically lag behind the tobacco industry and other companies that market and sell these products.
“These companies are very smart, and the chemists [developing their products] are smarter than us,” Rahman said. “By the time we do any research [on their products], they’ve moved on to another product.”
Schachter echoed this, explaining these companies are typically many steps ahead of public health officials.
But, ultimately, the safest form of nicotine consumption is no consumption.
“The best way to quit is not to start at all,” Schachter said.
Health reached out to ZYN for comment; the company, owned by Swedish Match, did not respond to the request by the time of publication.
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