Nicotine pouch rise driven by young men - study

Young men are behind the growing popularity of nicotine pouches in Great Britain, a study suggests.

Around 7.5% of 16 to 24-year-old-men are using the small sachets that fit under the top lip, compared with 1.9% use among young women and 1% among adults overall.

Most pouch users - estimated to be around half a million people - also smoke or vape, and a growing number are using them to give up smoking, University College London researchers found.

They say research is needed to determine whether the nicotine-filled pouches could help people quit cigarettes, which contain harmful tobacco and other chemicals.

The small, white teabag-like pouches are bought in round, brightly-coloured tins. They contain synthetic nicotine rather than tobacco, and young men have told the BBC they can produce a powerful hit.

Sales of nicotine pouches have been going up rapidly in recent years, with the rise driven "almost exclusively" by young people using them, especially young men, say the researchers.

Less than 1% of young men and women were using nicotine pouches in 2022, increasing to 4% in March 2025.

This is due to the "aggressive and targeted" way the pouches are marketed, the study says.

"Marketing of nicotine pouches has been heavily targeted at spaces and platforms that disproportionately reach young men, including sponsorship of Formula 1 teams, promotion at music festivals, reports of use among professional footballers, and influencer marketing aimed at male audiences," says Dr Harry Tattan-Birch, UCL researcher and study author.

Advertising on social media also tends to reach young men more than young women, he adds.

In contrast, over the last three years, adult use has remained low and pretty constant.

The findings are based on a survey of 127,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales between 2020 and 2025, published in Lancet Public Health.

But the rules around how the nicotine pouches are marketed is set to change.

Legislation passing through parliament - called the Tobacco and Vapes Bill - would ban their sale to anyone under 18, restrict how they are advertised, and give powers to regulate the flavours, packaging and nicotine they contain.

The study says this new regulation should be looked at carefully so that it doesn't undermine any potential the pouches have to reduce the harms from smoking.

The researchers found that nearly three-quarters of current users of nicotine pouches are men, with half under the age of 25.

Around 6.5% of attempts to quit smoking in 2025 involved the use of pouches, they said.

It's possible they are also being used to cut down or quit vaping, which is more popular than smoking in young people.

There was also a rise in their use in places where smoking is banned.

"The key is getting the balance right, discouraging uptake among young people, without making pouches so restricted that people are pushed back towards more harmful products like cigarettes," said Dr Tattan-Birch.

While they carry fewer health risks than cigarettes and vapes, there are cardiovascular risks for people using pouches with high quantities of nicotine - and there is growing concern over the damage nicotine pouches do to gums.

In other countries, the rules on pouches are far more strict. Nicotine pouches are banned in Germany and the Netherlands, and soon to be banned in France.