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Gen Z vapers appear to be turning their attention to nicotine pouches, a recent study has suggested.
Last month, the JAMA Network published a research paper which explored the nicotine habits of over 10,000 teenagers in 10th and 12th grade, the UK equivalent of year 11 to year 13 (upper sixth).
Experts found that the use of nicotine pouches increased by double from 2023 to 2024, as many reported joint vape use too.
Action on Smoking and Health Scotland have described nicotine pouches as 'teabag-like pouches filled with a fibrous white powder infused with nicotine and other ingredients such as sweeteners and flavourings'.
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"It is placed in the top lip, where it releases its nicotine and flavour," the charity said.
Although they note that 'nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco', as they are 'commonly confused with snus'.
"Snus (loose tobacco or tobacco in a pouch that is placed in the mouth similar to nicotine pouches) has a long history of use in Scandinavia," they said.
Apart from in Sweden, snus 'is banned across the EU and UK since 1992'.
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Adam M. Leventhal, one of the authors of the study, told Business Insider that he was shocked by the 'increase' in ZYN use, a Swedish brand of tobacco-free nicotine available to buy in the UK and US.
At the start of the year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised the sale of ZYN pouches as a tool to quit smoking cigarettes.
However, Leventhal claims that if you search ZYN on TikTok, it shows young people using it and teaching others how it works.
"They can use them in school without teachers seeing them or even in front of their parents," he said.
So tobacco is the leading preventable cause of cancer and cancer deaths, but nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco.
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Although nicotine is highly addictive and lead to lung and stomach problems, an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, as well as narrowing arteries. Such symptoms can lead to a heart attack.
“We don’t know what happens, over time, when you have varying strengths of nicotine sitting in your mouth in a pouch,” Meghan Morean, PhD, a research scientist at the Yale Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, told Yale Medicine.
“It’s possible that the risk is very minimal.
“But it’s also possible that it has an effect over time.
“There are studies looking at changes in cheek cells, but we don’t have all the information yet.
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“We do know that it can irritate your gums in the short term, and some people find that nicotine gives them an upset stomach.”
LADbible Group has contacted ZYN for comment.