Nicotine Archives | Restoring Liberty

The Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to allow certain nicotine pouches to be marketed as posing fewer health risks than cigarettes could potentially lead to the U.S. becoming smoke-free one day, according to one analyst.

The FDA said Tuesday it will let 20 of Swedish Match USA, Inc.’s ZYN nicotine pouch products be marketed to U.S. consumers with the risk modification claim that “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis,” according to the agency’s news release.

“FDA’s review of modified risk products is intended to ensure that adult users have clear, science-based information about the relative harms of tobacco products, so they can make informed choices,” Acting Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products Bret Koplow said in a statement. “Today’s decision allows these products to be marketed with a modified risk claim that informs adults who smoke about the lower risks associated with these products.”

The FDA’s decision marks “an acknowledgement of reality,” according to Consumer Choice Center Policy Director David Clement.

“It’s an acknowledgment that, obviously, these products are exponentially less risky than spoken cigarettes, and it’s important that smokers trying to quit know that when they buy them,” Clement told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And so this is a very positive step forward in terms of overall harm reduction, and it’s a big step forward for anyone who cares about accuracy in marketing.” (Read more from “What The FDA’s Latest Ruling Could Mean For Future Of Nicotine Pouches” HERE)

France’s health ministry banned multiple nicotine products, with potential violators facing large fines and jail time.

The European country’s ban took effect April 1 and applies to nicotine sachets, or pouches, and beads, along with other oral nicotine products, according to the French Republic’s website. It represents one of the strictest bans against the pouches in Europe, covering import, use and possession of pouches as well as their sale, The Financial Times (FT) reported. Potential violators face up to 5 years in prison and an approximately $436,000 fine. The ban does not include certain medical products or chewing tobacco. Cigarettes and vape products also do not fall under the ban, which targets Zyn as one of the prohibited products, according to the New York Post.

In October 2024, then-French Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said more teenagers were calling to report sometimes dangerous “nicotine syndromes linked to the use of e-cigarette pouches” during a Le Parisien interview. “It is our duty to ban their sale,” she said.

Nicotine pouches were used by around 0.3 percent of the adult European populace in 2021, though that rate was anticipated to triple by 2025, a European Parliament report found. Adolescents and young adults were the main users. The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety alleged advertising of nicotine pouches and products like them was flooding social media and targeting younger people in November 2023, the New York Post reported.

The rule from the country’s health ministry labels nicotine a “toxic substance,” citing health concerns such as addiction and episodes of “acute nicotonic syndromes.” The latter can result in serious vomiting and the possibility of dehydration, seizures and additional symptoms, according to the ministry. (Read more from “Country Bans Nicotine Pouches” HERE)

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