According to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), tobacco use remains the leading cause of disease and death in the United States, with more than 480,000 recorded deaths yearly. One of every three cancer deaths in the country is due to smoking. Meanwhile, one in every four deaths from cardiovascular diseases is also a result of cigarette smoking. The agency further explained that smoking increases the risk for stroke and can cause type 2 diabetes, which more than 34 million American adults suffer from.

Today, tobacco cessation treatments are administered to individuals who want to reduce their dependence on smoking and tobacco use by providing nicotine alternatives. They are commercially available in the form of gums, transdermal patches, lozenges, and pouches, which are all effective in increasing the chance of smokers quitting successfully. Healthcare providers claim that products like nicotine pouches are effective since they increase cessation rates by 50% to 70%. Because they are acknowledged by health professionals, nicotine pouches are starting to become popular among smokers who want to stop smoking.

Here are some of the reasons why nicotine pouches are better for you than smoking regular cigarettes:

They Are Non-Combustible

The USFDA revealed that smoking cigarettes are responsible for the majority of all tobacco-related diseases and deaths in the US because it exposes individuals to over 7,000 chemicals, which include tobacco-specific nitrosamines, arsenic, and benzene, among others. Moreover, they found that combustible products that burn tobacco, like cigarettes, are the most harmful to a user’s health. Huge cigarette companies like Philip Morris USA are planning to focus their operations on making non-combustible products in order to make significant progress in reducing the harm associated with smoking by 2030. While they haven’t identified the specific products they’re developing, nicotine pouches may be on their cards. Unlike cigarettes, nicotine pouches are taken orally without burning any of their content.

They Are Tobacco-Free

A study on tobacco harm reduction tools by Patwardhan and Fagerström discussed that even unburned tobacco or cigarettes contain about 16 carcinogens. Therefore, consuming tobacco, even in smokeless forms such as gutkha, zarda, and naswar is not considered safe. This makes nicotine pouches preferable over most traditional tobacco products since they don’t contain any tobacco chemicals. The best nicotine pouches by renowned manufacturers like On!, ZYN, and Velo, are all 100% tobacco-free. Aside from nicotine, they only contain plant fibers, food-grade fillers, and flavoring agents. Nicotine pouches are also useful in reducing nicotine dependence since they are available in varying nicotine strengths or flavors.

They Are Smoke-Free

Patwardhan and Fagerström claimed that there are about 60 carcinogenic chemicals present in tobacco products once they are smoked, and even e-cigarette smoke brings possible health risks. Our previous article on secondhand e-cigarette smoking discussed that e-cigarette use is associated with respiratory conditions and cardiovascular disease since studies showed that e-liquids of vape products contain heavy metals. Since nicotine pouches are non-combustible, they are also completely smoke-free. It ensures that you keep yourself and those around you safe from the secondhand smoke caused by tobacco products or e-cigarettes. This is important since USFDA reported that secondhand smoking causes more than 40,00 deaths a year.

As the awareness about pouches grows, the hope is that more people opt out of cigarettes. A push for nicotine pouches could be a monumental step in helping improve the health and quality of life for cigarette smokers.