The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zyn owner Philip Morris International (PMI) to market its nicotine pouches as less harmful than cigarettes. Going forward, 20 Zyn products will be allowed to carry the following modified-risk claim: “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.”
The decision officially puts the FDA in line with the science, which has long found that nicotine pouches are vastly safer than smoking. As the FDA says, “for adults who smoke, switching completely from cigarettes to nicotine pouches may reduce exposure to many harmful chemicals found in cigarettes.” This assessment is supported by a 2023 randomized, controlled study, which found that people who switched from cigarettes to nicotine pouches had significantly lower exposure to harmful chemicals within just one week. Those who quit saw their exposure rate reduced by approximately 42 percent to 96 percent compared to the group who continued to smoke. This is a similar reduction level to that of those who quit using nicotine products entirely. The researchers concluded that “the substantial reduction in harmful and potentially harmful constituent exposure” suggests that switching from cigarettes to nicotine pouches “may present a harm reduction opportunity for adults who smoke.”
Not only are nicotine pouches far safer than cigarettes, but they are also effective at getting smokers to quit. In a 2025 cross-sectional study of medical students in Saudi Arabia, 62.9 percent of nicotine pouch users reported quitting smoking entirely, and “more than half noted health improvements.” A 2024 study of a randomized controlled trial published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research found that low-income adults who smoked daily and were not planning to quit significantly reduced their cigarette consumption after being given nicotine pouches. After two months, those assigned to oral nicotine pouches cut their smoking from 15 cigarettes per day to about eight. The authors concluded that smokers assigned to nicotine pouches smoked fewer cigarettes per day, arguing that e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches “can be a harm-reduction tool” for lower-income smokers who are “not willing to quit smoking.”
“There is no question that the FDA’s approval of [PMI] reduced risk claim is a huge advance for smokers, because Zyn delivers nicotine in a satisfying and enjoyable manner for a microscopic fraction of the health risks of smoking,” Brad Rodu, a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville and co-author of the first study of adult interest in Zyn, tells Reason. The study, published in 2020, found that the most popular reason for using Zyn pouches was that they are “less harmful to my health than other tobacco products” followed by “ease of use.”
Unfortunately, many Americans remain confused about the relative risks of nicotine products. In one survey of young adults from Southern California, nearly half said they were unsure whether nicotine pouches were more or less harmful than cigarettes, while only about 1 in 5 correctly identified them as less harmful. Now, smokers can be informed of the reduced risk on Zyn packaging.
The FDA’s decision “recognizes evidence supporting the claim that using Zyn is safer than smoking cigarettes,” Raymond Niaura, a psychologist and an expert on tobacco dependence and treatment at New York University, tells Reason. “I hope that current cigarette smokers will take heed of this information, and that it will encourage switching from cigarette smoking to use of nicotine pouch products.”
With more than 24 million American adults still smoking and cigarettes alone killing nearly 500,000 Americans every year, the FDA’s decision to allow a key cessation tool to be marketed with factual scientific information is a huge win for public health. The FDA does not always get it right, but this time it did. Now, it’d be wise to do the same for other safer nicotine products.
