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.
I mean it really is safer than smoking. I use a different brand than zyn and from experience I can say it’s not really that bad for you, long as you switch up where you keep it in your mouth and stay away from fruity and citrus flavors… They tend to put citric acid in them and it seriously fucks your teeth.
Just about anything is going to be safer than hot oily particle smoke in your mouth, throat and lungs. You could hardly make the bar lower for that statement.
…I mean, are they wrong?
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.
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
may now be marketed with the following risk modification claim: “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.”
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 it’s safer than cigarettes is a stretch from current data imo.
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.
At present, it is not possible to draw a conclusion whether nicotine itself may act as a complete carcinogen.
That study is proposing that nicotine may modify the effect of cancer growth but did not conclude that nicotine itself is a carcinogen.
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.
It’s not even that bad. There have been studies showing heart benefits.
It’s pretty much as harmful as caffeine.
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.
Get outa here, Joe Camel.
I think mouth cancer risk is increased even
Does nicotine itself cause cancer??
No it doesn’t
It passed the AMES test.
Vaping can potentially cause minute amounts of harmful chemicals if you greatly misuse the device, but the studies that found that had methodologies designed to produce harmful chemicals (like firing the coil for 90s at double the normal voltage)
And it’s always left out that any harmful chemicals are orders of magnitude lower than in tobacco.
No it’s not. Nicotine by itself is about as harmful as caffeine.
You are wrong
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4553893/
where as there is growing evidence caffeine actually reduces the chances of getting cancer
To our knowledge, there are no relevant study in humans on carcinogenic effects from pure nicotine including products, such as NRT and e-cigarettes
And
At present, it is not possible to draw a conclusion whether nicotine itself may act as a complete carcinogen
which is to say it’s definitely harmful for your cardiovascular system if you have a fuck ton of it, and people tend to when they vape 60mg/ml and have a cigarette’s worth in a 2 second puff.
They really should regulate the amount of nicotine in that shit. Not sure about Zyn but I know they go way too far with Juul vapes.
That’s not how those numbers work. The form of nicotine used in disposables (nicotine salts) is not very bioavailable, and can’t be directly compared to the nicotine content of a cigarette.
It especially can’t be compared to the old vapes that maxed out at 18mg/ml, because they used freebase nicotine which is more bioavailable.
The coil used and the ratio of base ingredients also has a lot to do with it. A mesh coil with max VG can give the appearance of more vapor than a liquid with higher PG, even if the nic content is the same.
I thought this was the same as dip? Maybe I’m mistaken.
No, it’s just a flavored nicotine pouch.
Ah ok that’s different then, my bad
I mean… it’s true?
I can see the argument that people might look at that and for some reason, given how fundamentally stupid many Americans seem to be, assume it means that in general it reduces your risk of all those conditions even if you didn’t smoke prior… but I doubt that will actually be a meaningfully large occurrence.
have surged in popularity among conservatives
Why? Is smoking woke now?
God I wish more of them would. All my conservative friends dip. That shit is nasty. Like not just the flavor and the habit itself but the damn spit cup and them thinking they’re being discrete pushing it down a clear straw into a can of Sprite.
I smoked as a young adult. And then vapes. And now pouches (which I order online because my state bans flavors and charges twice as much).
I wouldn’t recommend nicotine to anybody, but IMO pouches are by far the best delivery mechanism.
Sucking on things in general is considered gay by many it seems.
I thought that was obvious?..
