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The popular electronic vapes have some competition in the nicotine business: ZYN pouches. The tobacco-free product, which can be discreetly placed under the lip, has become the latest trend among teenagers and young adults.
In June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the controversial decision to issue a modified risk claim for 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products, following extensive review. As a result, these ZYN pouches can be marketed with the following message: “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.”
Indeed, ZYN pouches don’t produce harmful ash or smoke like cigarettes do. But this doesn’t mean that the pouches are safe, since they still contain a highly addictive substance, nicotine.
“I think from a public health standpoint, what we’d like to see is people not using nicotine products. And not marketing new and innovative ones. Because, despite what the industry says, their goal is to create customers for the next generation,” said David G. Hill, MD, FCCP, a critical care physician with Waterbury Pulmonary Associates and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Quinnipiac University.
The FDA’s Case for ZYN’s Reduced-Risk Claims
ZYN is a type of nicotine pouch, often containing a flavored powder that dissolves in the mouth. The nicotine is absorbed through the gum and lining of the mouth. One pouch can contain up to 11 milligrams of nicotine, the equivalent of one cigarette, depending on the brand.
People usually keep a pouch in their mouth for about an hour before throwing it out.
And depending on the person, ZYN pouches can be quite addictive. “Nicotine is kind of a reasonable anxiolytic, a stress relief product,” Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, MHS, an associate professor of medicine & oncology and physician at John Hopkins Medicine. “It’s got a dopaminergic effect that’s delivered without having the side effects of combustible cigarettes.”
The FDA has granted modified risk claims to 10 ZYN products with 3 milligrams of nicotine and 10 products with 6 milligrams of nicotine, including various flavored options.
Bret Koplow, PhD, JD, the acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said that the modified risk claim informs adults who smoke “about the lower risks associated with these products.”
“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,” he said in a press release.
Are ZYN Nicotine Pouches Really Safer Than Cigarettes?
Unlike cigarettes, ZYN pouches are free of tobacco, which contains toxic substances and radioactive materials when smoked. Instead, ZYN contains nicotine derived from a tobacco plant. Technically, ZYN pouches come with lower risks of serious diseases—like mouth cancer, heart disease, and lung disease—in comparison to cigarettes, where people are actively inhaling tobacco smoke.
ZYN is marketed as different than chewing tobacco because there’s no need to spit while using. They also don’t produce an odor or smoke, as most cigarettes do.
“Many of the tobacco-specific nitrosamines are what put people at increased risk for either oral cancers or lung cancers if they’re inhaled,” said Meilan King Han, MD, MS, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan Health. “So in theory, Zyn should have a lower cancer risk than chewing tobacco, conventional cigarettes, or even a vape.”
However, this doesn’t mean they’re entirely safe to use, said Hill. In fact, ZYN even wrote on its website that its tobacco-free products are “not intended for people who have never used tobacco or nicotine products or who have quit using tobacco and nicotine products altogether.” They are also not recommended for people trying to quit smoking.
Instead, the company “offers a variety of quality, scientifically substantiated smoke-free products, with the hope that they “will one day replace cigarettes.”
For active smokers, the FDA argued that “switching completely from cigarettes to FDA-authorized nicotine pouches may reduce exposure to many harmful chemicals found in cigarettes.”
“The FDA has several approved smoking cessation products that have been studied and shown to help people quit smoking, which are known to be effective,” Hill said. “Whereas with oral nicotine products like ZYN, we don’t have data that shows that they actually lead to smoking cessation.”
Experts Say ZYN’s Marketing Could Attract Young Users
Experts are concerned about the new marketing authorization, given the increase in young people using nicotine pouches over the years. A 2025 study published in JAMA Network Open, which involved surveys of more than 10,000 high schoolers across the country, found that nearly twice as many teens used nicotine pouches in 2024 compared to 2023.
Nicotine can disrupt brain development through about age 25. Although ZYN pouches are intended for adults 21 and older, Galiatsatos said they have become more popular among younger people.
However, when the FDA announced the new risk claim for the 20 ZYN products, it also said that “if there is a significant increase in youth uptake,” the agency could withdraw the order.
What Are the Health Risks of Using ZYN?
Han said that because ZYN pouches only came out in 2014, it isn’t clear how they can affect people’s long-term health. However, the nicotine in ZYN pouches, also found in vape pens and e-cigarette products, is known to raise heart rates and blood pressure. The pouches can put people at an increased cardiovascular risk, especially for those who were not already using nicotine products.
Meanwhile, Galiatsatos is concerned about how ZYN pouches could affect people’s oral health, particularly their gums. “The mouth has microbiomes. It has a delicacy of the immune system. It has to react to foreign products constantly coming into it,” he said. “So anything that is going to impact that is going to create some level of challenges, like oral ulcers and impacts to the integrity of the teeth over time.”
Research has shown how nicotine can alter someone’s brain, especially before it is fully developed by the age of 25. A study published by Molecular Psychiatry in 2025 found that nicotine use during adolescence is associated with an increased risk of nicotine addiction and mood disorders, like depression and anxiety, in adulthood.
Hill explained that nicotine disrupts the centers of the brain that control learning, mood, memory, and impulse control, specifically among kids and teenagers.
Read the original article on Verywell Health
