'Alarming' rise in strong illicit nicotine pouches

High strength nicotine pouches that are being sold illegally in the UK could cause inadvertent overdosing and harm to teenagers and young adults, experts have warned.

Nicotine pouches - small sachets that fit under the top lip - are largely unregulated and there is currently no law stopping children from buying them.

Trading Standards teams in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Dorset have made more than 1,500 seizures in the past year.

The Oxfordshire team said it was seeing "significant growth" in illegal versions containing potentially dangerous levels of nicotine.

The government said new legislation would stop nicotine products being marketed to children and it was investing £30m in enforcement.

During the last 12 months, Oxfordshire Trading Standards has seized more than 900 packets of non-compliant nicotine pouches from retailers and launched several criminal investigations.

In Dorset, 844 seizures were been made by officers and in Windsor and Maidenhead 21.

Because the products are fairly new there are no specific regulations covering advertising, strength or age restrictions.

Instead, they come under General Product Safety Regulations which means they need to be clearly labelled in English with safety guidelines.

Jody Kerman, head of Trading Standards at Oxfordshire County Council said: "Nicotine is a poison, you need to know who to contact if something goes wrong, what to do if you swallow it, how many is safe to have over a period of time.

"If it's not in English how are you supposed to know how to use it safely?"

He added that he suspects much of the growth in interest in these products is from footballers, influencers and social media.

A recent study found one in five professional footballers surveyed was using nicotine pouches and nearly half wanted to quit.

The general use of nicotine pouches remains low in Great Britain, with research suggesting about five percent of adults and three percent of under-18s having ever tried them.

Nicotine pouches are often presented in bright packaging with appealing flavours to make them more attractive to young users.

They are sometimes informally referred to as 'snus' - although that is a tobacco product that has been banned in the UK and EU since 1992.

While they are less harmful than smoking, they are highly addictive and not recommended for teenagers or non-smokers.

Most pouches contain six to 20 milligrams (mg) of nicotine while some products contain 50mg - that is about five times stronger than an average cigarette.

Some illegal pouches claim to contain as much as 150mg of nicotine, although tests conducted on behalf of Trading Standards found actual levels varied greatly.

The World Health Organisation said there was a lack of data on the long-term health impact of using nicotine pouches and recommended policy makers should minimise the product's appeal and uptake among young people.

Rachel Ward, a GP in Oxfordshire, warned against buying products not labelled in English saying that teenagers and young people could be exposed to dangerous levels of nicotine: "Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, people compare it to other significant drugs like heroin and cocaine.

"Nicotine effects every organ system in our body, it has an effect on the brain, on our heart.

"It is a stimulant that will generally heighten your awareness, agitation, potential anxiety, physical symptoms like being a bit jittery, palpitations, dry mouth, so generally not pleasant symptoms."

Brett Crundwell, owner of Triumph Vapes in Didcot, said he was put off nicotine pouches after he experienced a nasty reaction to one at a trade show: "After 20 seconds it was stinging so I moved it to another part of my lip.

"I turned to speak to one of my friends and my gums were bleeding.

"I had a sore on my gums where I first put it on and one of my friend's daughters, who was on a stand with us, tried one and she said 'I've just been to the toilet and I was physically sick after trying this pouch'."

Some of the major tobacco companies are behind new nicotine products which are marketed at young people via free giveaways at music festivals and events.

Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking Health (ASH) said companies had been using aggressive marketing strategies to entice underage consumers ahead of the introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill expected later this year.

She said: "Many of the big brands are owned by tobacco companies and they're very much using the playbook that they've used over the decades to promote cigarettes to young people and create themselves a new market of young people who perhaps don't smoke but might use these nicotine pouches."

Two of the largest companies, Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco that are behind brands such as Nordic Spirit and Velo, said their products were only meant for over-18s and they welcomed stronger regulations.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: "Snus is harmful and illegal to sell in the UK, which is why we are cracking down on illicit retailers by boosting funding for enforcement on the high street and at the border.

"Our Tobacco and Vapes Bill will put us on track for a smoke-free UK and stop vapes and nicotine products, including nicotine pouches, from being marketed to children."

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