ASH Demands More Regulation

The study was conducted by Dr Leonie Brose, Laura Bunce, and Hazel Cheeseman, and published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. The full paper is linked below.

Brose, Bunce, and Cheeseman state: “The public health impact of new nicotine products will depend on their use by different population groups. We assessed the prevalence of nicotine pouch use among youth and adults in Great Britain.”

The trio note, “for people who smoke, switching to nicotine pouches would be expected to have positive health effects, as smoking-related morbidity and mortality are caused primarily by the results of combustion, not nicotine.”

“However,” they warn, “nicotine is the primary addictive component in smoking, raising concerns about increased nicotine pouch use among young people and people who have not used other nicotine products, particularly with some pouches able to deliver high doses of nicotine very quickly.”

The group looked at data from the cross-sectional annual Action on Smoking and Health Smokefree GB Adult Surveys 2020-2024 and the Action on Smoking and Health Smokefree GB Youth Survey 2024 to appraise pouch ever- and current-use among adults over time, and in 2024 among youth and adults overall.

The group found:

• In 2024, among adults in GB, current and ever use of nicotine pouches was rare at 1.0% and 5.4%, respectively, despite a noticeable increase since 2020
• The ever use of nicotine pouches was closely associated with the consumption of other nicotine products and appears linked with cannabis use both among adults and youth and more common among males in both groups
• Among adults, it was also associated with younger age, social housing, receiving or waiting for treatment for mental health problems, gambling, and riskier use of alcohol
• Among youth, those living in London (vs. other areas of England) were also more likely to have ever used pouches

They concluded: “Pouch use in GB is currently low among adults and youth with about 1 in 100 people reporting current use. However, use appears to be increasing and is much higher in some groups, including younger adults, males and people with experience of vaping, smoking, and use of other addictive products. Monitoring and consideration of regulations are required.”

Again, the demand for regulation to limit access to a product that the researchers themselves admit poses none of the dangers of tobacco products – simply because it is guilty by association? This seems to be yet more mission creep from Action on Smoking and Health.

Phil, a member of the public who argues in favour of evidence-based tobacco harm reduction policy on Twitter/X, said: “It never stops being annoying when researchers make policy recommendations when they didn't study the effects of their recommended policies. Add the recommendation to misuse the regulatory process to discourage use instead of to protect consumers, and it's just plain unethical.”

References:

• Prevalence of Nicotine Pouch Use Among Youth and Adults in Great Britain—Analysis of Cross-Sectional, Nationally Representative Surveys - https://academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ntr/ntae295/7930315?login=false

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Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.