Janelle Irwin Taylor
Speaking on Fox & Friends Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said nicotine pouches are the safest way to consume nicotine.
“Nicotine itself does not cause cancer. There is no evidence that it’s carcinogenic,” he said, adding that “the thing we really want to get away from is cigarettes.”
While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorized nicotine pouches as a smoking cessation aid, it has approved Zyn, nicotine pouches from Philip Morris International, as a tobacco product.
Kennedy’s support for such products stems from his concerns with the billions of dollars collectively spent on smoking-related health care costs.
Speaking later in the day, also on Fox News, Philip Morris International Vice President and Chief Scientific and Regulatory Strategy Officer Matthew Holman, who is also a biochemist, said that approval came “because they felt like the risks were substantially lower” when compared to traditional cigarettes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns on its website that “there are no safe tobacco products” and argues more research is needed “to better understand the short- and long-term health effects of using nicotine pouches.”
But advocacy for smoking alternatives, including heat-not-burn products, is taking hold. Last year, a survey conducted by RG Strategies and Peak Insights fears in improving the nation’s overall health. Specifically, 45% of all respondents were unhappy with the FDA’s efforts regulating smoke-free and other nicotine-containing products, such as nicotine pouches. or Philip Morris International found that half of voters were dissatisfied with the FDA’s progress over the last three y
A whole 54% of survey respondents said they believe smoking rates would go down faster if the FDA encouraged smokers to utilize less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.
Philip Morris International has invested $12.5 billion globally since 2008 to develop and commercialize smoke-free products for adults as an alternative to smoking cigarettes.
In Florida, lawmakers are taking steps to increase access to smoke-free products. Two measures (SB 1418, HB 785) filed in the 2025 Legislative Session by Sen. Nick DiCeglie and Rep. Chase Tramont, respectively, would have excluded heat-not-burn products from the definition of cigarettes and included them in the definition of “tobacco products,” which would have set up a taxing structure different from traditional cigarettes.
While the measures died and were not directly related to nicotine pouches, the effort drew attention to ways to potentially curb the estimated $10 billion Florida spends annually on smoking-related illness.
