Recent coverage regarding smoke-free nicotine products is more than just unfair – it’s irresponsible and damaging to public health. A recent story in the New York Post should be cheered by tobacco companies: its distortion of the facts will keep adult smokers using the most harmful nicotine delivery method – combustible cigarettes.
Unfortunately, this is par for the course when it comes to how the media covers cigarette alternatives such as nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products, which offer adults better options than continuing to smoke.
Critics of nicotine pouches often contend that they are not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is false. The most popular nicotine pouch in the U.S., ZYN, recently received marketing authorization for all 20 of its products, including flavored varieties. In its January decision, the FDA noted that “these products offer greater benefits to population health” and “meet that bar by benefiting adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products.”
Another common misperception is that nicotine pouches are increasingly used by young people. But according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest National Youth Tobacco Survey, “youth nicotine pouch use did not show a statistically significant change from 2023” and remains low, at just 1.8 percent.
Heated tobacco products are another promising innovation that offer adults a better alternative to cigarettes. To be clear, IQOS is the only FDA-authorized heated tobacco product on the market in the U.S., and the agency acknowledges it significantly reduces the production of harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke.
Personally, I was a smoker with the lung capacity of someone 165 years old. I switched to heat-not-burn and now have the lung capacity of someone 50. Many other adult smokers have similar success stories – stories the media should cheer instead of sneer at.
The media has a responsibility to report the facts so the American public is fully informed about the realities of FDA-authorized smoke-free products, including their health benefits compared to smoking.
When the media fails to get the facts right, adult smokers pay the price. We can – and must – do better.
