Phillip Kirschberg

Two recent developments relating to nicotine pouches and tobacco harm reduction deserve attention. On October 30, @FDATobacco authorized 24 Velo nicotine pouch products following rigorous scientific review. FDA reported lower levels of harmful constituents than in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, including no measurable levels of several carcinogens associated with oral cancer. fda.gov/tobacco-products/ctp… Separately, a new scientific assessment of Velo products sold outside the U.S. concludes that the evidence supports health risks similar to or lower than Swedish snus—and substantially lower than cigarette smoking. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4295… The comparison with snus is important. Snus has decades of epidemiological evidence showing substantially lower risks than smoking. Unlike snus, nicotine pouches contain no tobacco leaf, and growing evidence supports their potential to reduce harm when adults replace cigarettes completely. Pouches don't yet have snus’s long-term evidence base. But uncertainty about their precise long-term risks should not obscure the substantial difference in risk compared with continued smoking. People who smoke deserve clear, proportionate information about their alternatives.