The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday cleared Philip Morris-owned Zyn nicotine pouches to be marketed as less harmful than cigarettes, giving the tobacco giant a major regulatory win as the Trump administration loosens restrictions on nicotine products.
The decision, first reported by Axios, allows 20 Zyn products to carry a modified-risk claim saying that switching from cigarettes to Zyn lowers the risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Zyn pouches contain nicotine but not tobacco. They are placed between a user’s gum and lip and have surged in popularity among conservatives, tech workers and others who promote them as a cleaner alternative to cigarettes and chewing tobacco or a productivity aid.
Nicotine itself causes issues. It might be less alone than with the other components of tobacco but saying it’s safer than cigarettes is a stretch from current data imo.
Anecdotally a person I know is attempting to wean off and each decrease in number of zins has measurably improved their heart rate and sleep.
Depends on how you phrase it. I would be willing to bet it’s safe in regards to carcinogens, most of which in cigarettes are byproducts of additives and from combustion. It’s probably safer than dipping in that respect as well.
Nicotine is bad for your cardiovascular system, but it’s not classified as a carcinogen by itself.
The evidence shows that nicotine promotes the development of numerous forms of cancer. Also a lot of the data on this is out dated as it comes from studies done years ago on user groups that were using products that are now significantly more potent. There is also evidence of issues with the liver, and numerous other deleterious effects on the organs that have a growing body of data showing stronger, and stronger, correlations with nicotine use.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4553893/
https://atm.amegroups.org/article/view/119609/html
2023 review found most animal tumor-initiation studies did not show nicotine increasing spontaneous tumor initiation, while tumor-progression results were inconsistent and hard to generalize
Smokeless tobacco is not “safe”, it’s addictive, may have oral/cardiovascular concerns, and long term data is limited, but cancer risk is likely far lower than chewing tobacco. Nicotine alone os not strongly established as cancer causing in humans, but biologically suspicious enough that “harmless” would be too strong.
There’s a reason the FDA is allowing Zyn to say there’s a difference now with “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis”. People would do better to switch to Zyn than smoke or use dip. They’d do even better quitting, but people should understand there’s much higher risk with smoking and using chewing tobacco.
That study is proposing that nicotine may modify the effect of cancer growth but did not conclude that nicotine itself is a carcinogen.
And that is exactly what I said, that evidence shows nicotine promotes development of caner.
This also is ignoring the deleterious effects on the organs that aren’t cancer based.
I never claimed that it didn’t modify the growth of cancer, I just stated it wasn’t a carcinogen.
I also specified that it was only healthier than tobacco when regarding cancer.
It’s not even that bad. There have been studies showing heart benefits.
It’s pretty much as harmful as caffeine.
Get outa here, Joe Camel.
Ehhh… Caffeine isn’t nearly as drastic of a vasoconstrictor as nicotine. I would have to read a study about any cardiovascular benefits, but I’m highly dubious and would be willing to bet the benefits do not put weight then negative outcomes.
I don’t see why you consider it a stretch to say nicotine alone is less harmful than tobacco products containing nicotine, which literally risk cancer by just chewing the leaf without additives.
Even the FDA is now saying it’s less harmful, that’s what this whole thing is about
https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/ctp-newsroom/fda-authorizes-20-zyn-nicotine-pouches-be-marketed-specific-modified-risk-claim
It sounds like the same claims as filtered cigarettes had with the same degree of proof. The current FDA has been largely regulatory captured imo.
Zyns also tend to be flavored, flavorings which are highly unregulated and untested.
If you’re going to mention Zyn flavorings, you’re grasping at straws. They’re using food grade flavorings. Might as well say chewing gum is dangerous and under regulated at that point.
There is literally no reason for them to scare people with weird flavorings that could be dangerous. They already have a well used addictive product. Nicotine and food grade flavors is plenty to make something that people get addicted to and use.
It’s simply a less dangerous product than tobacco. That doesn’t make it safe but ffs it’s nicotine plus food grade products. It’s practically the same as using nicorette gum, just not for the goal of quitting.
Saying “a tobacco-free pouch that you suck on is safer than a cigarette” sounds the same as saying “a filtered cigarette is safer than an unfiltered cigarette?” I don’t understand how you can make that claim. The big danger from smoking is the smoke itself with all the chemical reactions occurring when you burn plant matter and inhale it.
These products (nor vapes) don’t share a single similarity to cigarettes apart from them containing nicotine, and if that’s the metric we’re using, we can also say tomatoes are just as deadly since they too contain nicotine.
If it were the burning then dip/chew wouldn’t be a cause for mouth and throat cancer. The 1.5-6 mgs in a zyn vs the 1mg/100kg of tomato is a very different dosage. Nicotine alone can be cytotoxic and promote EMT both factors that can indicate cancer risk.
Flavoring problems arent really a reach considering some have induced severe and deadly responses in people who vape.
Dip/chew is also made from the same tobacco as cigarettes. Zyns aren’t made with tobacco.
Also the rate of oral cancer from smokeless tobacco is already significantly lower than than it is for smokers.
https://cancer.jmir.org/2024/1/e51936/