US regulators allowed Philip Morris to advertise its Zyn oral nicotine pouches as less harmful than cigarettes. The decision is a marketing win for the tobacco giant, which like other manufacturers is investing in smoke-free products.
Tobacco replacements, such as nicotine pouches or vapes, are vastly less deadly than smoking ā a low bar to clear, since smoking is extraordinarily deadly ā and help smokers quit, according to a UK government review, but remain controversial in public health circles.
The US surgeon general has called youth vaping an āepidemicā and vaping is not approved as a smoking-cessation tool. One academic argued in 2017 that opposition to such tools as anti-smoking aids stems from moral intuitions rather than evidence-based harm reduction.
