ZYN: Revolutionarily Risky

A dive into the moral implications of the ZYN nicotine pouch

I currently play Division 1 Women’s College Hockey, but just before I got to college, I skated almost exclusively with guys in their early twenties. I kept noticing a bit of a bulge under their lips and saw little white pouches scattered all over the change room and bench. When I asked what they were, the guy next to me said, “You’ve never heard of Zynchinos? Zynbabwes? Upper decky lip pillows?” Seeing a blank, confused look on my face, the guy pulled out a ZYN nicotine pouch container and told me, “Vaping was killing my lungs on the ice, but this is so much better. They help me get dialed.”

In modern, hockey boy lingo, that essentially means they help him focus and zone in. And that was a very common response from the other guys in the room. Everyone believed that these little white pouches enhanced their athletic performance and essentially had no downfalls. I figured there’s no way that a nicotine product can’t have a plethora of risks associated with its use, so I decided to do some research. I came to conclude that

ZYN’s premature product launch, marketing strategy, and the design combine to create a highly unethical product, because the company does not uphold their moral responsibility to inform users of the risks associated with use and the pouches are causing much more harm than good.

So, what exactly are they?

ZYNs are all-white nicotine pouches that are about the size of a small piece of gum. In the US, they are currently available in 3mg or 6mg of nicotine and sit between the gum and upper lip, hence the nickname “upper decky lip pillow.” Nicotine pouches were inspired by Swedish Match’s Snus (rhymes with moose), a centuries-old smokeless tobacco product. Original Snus pouches contained salt and tobacco. In the 2010s, tobacco-free nicotine pouches emerged due to a shift in consumer demand, with Swedish Match’s ZYN being one of the first. Nicotine and tobacco users wanted stimulating effects without stained teeth, bad breath, and the health risks that were constantly shoved in their face in anti-smoking ads and cigarette packaging. Nicotine pouches, like ZYN, instead offered a stain-less, spit-less, smoke-free alternative.

ZYN’s entry into the U.S.

ZYN was launched in 2014 and reached the American market by 2016. At this time, the Food and Drug Administration had very few regulations on new nicotine and tobacco products, particularly, nicotine pouches. This offered the company a lot of freedom. Currently, there isn’t enough data to fully understand the long-term effects of nicotine pouches such as ZYN, or its potential as a mode of quitting smoking or vaping, “but the tobacco industry can move much faster than science or the federal government,” which allowed ZYN to launch, dominate the American nicotine pouch market and essentially learn as they go (Ashwin Rodrigues, GQ).¹

After all, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right? Wrong.

In the U.S. adult cigarette use dropped 68% from 1965 to 2018 and the number of cigarettes smoked daily also drastically decreased.² This can be mainly attributed to heightened awareness of the health risks of smoking, stricter regulations, social stigma, and alternatives like nicotine gum and patches. After entering the U.S. market, ZYN sales soared, generating $1.8 billion and growing over 60% year-over-year.³ ZYN’s immediate success and the continued decline in cigarette smoking across the country, showed big tobacco companies the potential of tobacco-free smokeless products.

ZYN is one of the first of its kind in the industry, offering current nicotine users a discrete, smokeless and odorless way to experience nicotine. These distinct product features are extremely appealing to users who are sick of the social stigma of smoking, bad breath, yellowing teeth and any of the other negative effects cigarettes have on smokers. At just $5 for a can of 15, what smoker wouldn’t want to jump ship?

Intended audience vs reality

Similar to the ethical dilemma presented with Juul, a modern vaping device, the “freedom” that ZYN presents in its marketing is almost too appealing, especially to those at a vulnerable age who may be curious about an introduction to nicotine use. Underage nicotine use can severely impact adolescent brain development, affecting cognition, attention, and impulse control. It also can raise the risk of addiction and lead users to transition to cigarette smoking in the future.⁴ Juul was heavily criticized for their use of influencer marketing to promote their product to young people, but ZYN does not officially use social media or influencers to promote their product because they aim to limit the amount of youth exposed to their product. The ZYN official website is also age restricted and requires a photo ID to prove you are 21+ years of age in order to enter. Despite these preventative measures, concerns about underage ZYN use are increasing. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has urged the FDA to investigate ZYN’s marketing, fearing it appeals to youth through slogans and phrases in their ads like, “Discover a Fresh, New Way to Experience Nicotine Satisfaction.”

The goal of ZYN’s marketing is to highlight the product’s features and to demonstrate all the ways in which ZYN is more convenient and safer than current nicotine products on the market, but who they are enticing is straying far from their intent.

Through a consequentialist framework, an ethical theory that judges whether or not something is moral based on its consequences, ZYN is a morally irresponsible product.

While it’s true that ZYN is offering current adult nicotine users a moderately safer way of enjoying nicotine, thousands of young people are getting their hands on the product. They are assisting in forming life-long nicotine addictions in teens, which cannot be balanced by the current nicotine users who praise them.

Disregarding moral duties

While some deem ZYN nicotine pouches to be a technological breakthrough, the product has received significant (and warranted) backlash from health professionals. Because the nicotine pouch industry is so new its health impacts aren’t fully understood yet. Less than 10 years after its launch, dentists are already worried, as there are signs of mild to severe gum deterioration in users. Irfan Rahman, a professor and researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has been studying the harms of both cigarettes and chewing tobacco for several decades. As the popularity of nicotine pouches grew he began to observe this emerging product and has found that the same nitrosamines found in cigarette smoke are also found in ZYNs, which could in part contribute to the deterioration of its users’ gums.

Knowing these risks, an ethical concern arises within ZYN under the deontological framework. Deontology is a duty-based ethical framework that states it is one’s duty to do good, regardless of the consequences. ZYN promotes the freedom associated with their product, but does not adhere to their moral duty to warn the public about the known and unknown risks associated with its use. Without fully understanding the short and long term effects of ZYNs, users cannot make an informed decision about whether they want to risk potential lifelong consequences associated with nicotine pouch use.

While ZYN packaging includes a warning label about the addictive nature of nicotine, there is no warning about potential gum deterioration or the harms of nicotine itself.

With the current lackadaisical FDA restrictions on nicotine products, ZYN is under no legal obligation to fully inform the public about the current known consequences or the fact that the long term effects of the product aren’t even known yet. However, if this company seemingly values user autonomy and freedom, there is a moral duty for them to do so under the deontological framework, making this lack of transparency unethical.

What does this all mean?

On one hand, ZYN is offering a safer (short term) alternative to traditional nicotine and tobacco products as users aren’t directly harming their lungs through inhalation of foreign chemicals. Their discrete use also removes the social stigma associated with smoking. But on the other hand, the product poses very serious dangers to both its intended and unintended users which drastically outweighs the minute benefits certain users have. ZYN exaggerates the benefits that their product offers in their ads, making users believe that the convenience of the pouch will change their life. And they’re right, the gum deterioration, heart disease and plethora of other adverse health effects yet to be discovered will absolutely change their life!

There simply isn’t enough information on this product that would allow people to knowingly accept the risks of “enjoying” ZYN pouches.

Instead, they are under false impressions that this product doesn’t have long-term effects or could help them quit smoking, for example. For those reasons, I do not believe that this product should be on the market.

Works cited:

1. Rodrigues, Ashwin. “Why Are Zyn Nicotine Pouches Suddenly Everywhere?” GQ, 22 June 2023, www.gq.com/story/zyn-nicotine-pouches-suddenly-everywhere
2. Association, American Lung. “Tobacco Trends Brief.” Tobacco Trends Brief | American Lung Association, 2019, www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/tobacco-trends-brief/overall-tobacco-trends#:~:text=Trends%20in%20Cigarette%20Smoking%20Rates,-Created%20with%20Highcharts&text=Long%20term%2C%20cigarette%20smoking%20rates,to%2013.7%20percent%20in%202018
3. Philip Morris. “Q3 2023 — Philip Morris International.” 2023 Third-Quarter Results , 19 Oct. 2023, philipmorrisinternational.gcs-web.com/static-files/911cb3d8–9933–4c0a-922d-0072dc75f0aa
4. Truth Initiative. “Can Oral Nicotine Pouches like Zyn Help People Quit Vaping Nicotine?” Truth Initiative, 2019, truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products/can-oral-nicotine-pouches-zyn-help-people-quit-vaping#:~:text=Nicotine%20pouches%20can%20contain%20high,quit%20nicotine%20in%20any%20form