As nicotine pouches explode in popularity, tobacco companies are investing heavily in factories in the United States and creating new jobs from Florida to Colorado.
Along with vaping products, the Big Tobacco corporations have seized on the nicotine pouch market as a way to offset the steep decline in domestic sales of cigarettes. Pouch sales are projected to increase to more than $40 billion worldwide by 2033 from $6.9 billion in 2025, according to an analysis by Grand View Research, a market research firm.
Companies are racing to meet the demand, so far investing more than $1 billion in plant production to accommodate the growth. Several states have welcomed the industry’s forays into the latest twists on nicotine products, handing out millions of dollars in tax credits and grants.
But the marketing of nicotine-laden items like pouches, gums and lozenges as another safe alternative to traditional cigarettes has heightened public health concerns. Experts are accusing the tobacco industry of once again deliberately ignoring decades of science that proved the addictive nature of nicotine, and of stoking demand by producing more and more potent varieties.
Reminiscent of Juul and other flavored vaping products that caused a public uproar over teenage consumption, the pouches — tobacco-free “lip pillows” placed between the cheek and gum — have revived warnings that nicotine is highly addictive and can cause a host of conditions, like anxiety and heart arrhythmia. It also threatens a teenager’s still-developing brain, with the potential for affecting behavior and cognitive function, experts say.
Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, a Democrat, defended his state’s decision to support a new $600 million plant in Aurora, built by Philip Morris International, which is getting $4.5 million in state tax credits.
“We were the first state to legalize marijuana, and now have over 650 dispensaries, have legalized natural medicine and have almost 50 regulated healing centers that offer psilocybin,” Governor Polis said. “Of course, we want safer alternatives to smoking, like Zyn, to be in our state.”
The expansions signal the tobacco industry’s influence in the widening debate over the safety of this new generation of products.
As a major donor to President Trump, the industry has enjoyed a friendlier reception from his administration than they did from other presidents.
In May, the Food and Drug Administration issued new guidance relaxing regulations on nicotine pouches and vapes, a week after the tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to a Trump-backed super PAC.
In late June, the F.D.A. announced that it would allow some products from one brand, Zyn, to be marketed as having a lower risk for some cancers and diseases than cigarettes do.
The pouches also have a prominent booster in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, who has described pouches as “probably the safest way to consume nicotine” and has acknowledged using them.
Zyn is produced by Swedish Match, a Philip Morris International subsidiary. Its plant in Aurora employs more than 120 people, with plans to expand to 500 employees. In addition, the corporation spent $232 million to build a plant in Owensboro, Ky., and employs 340 workers there.
In the last two years, Reynolds added about 1,000 jobs in the United States, mainly through pouch-making expansion, according to Luis Pinto, a company spokesman.
Altria, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, is producing the brands called on! and on! PLUS in Richmond, Va. The company won F.D.A. approval in December for additional pouch products under a new streamlined program. (Altria was known as Philip Morris, which rebranded in 2008 and spun off international sales to Philip Morris International.)
In December, Swisher, known for Swisher Sweets cigars, announced a $135 million expansion to its Jacksonville, Fla., factory. The company said it expected to add at least 240 jobs to support production of nicotine and caffeine pouches.
And the Swedish firm WiJo is spending $13 million to open its first pouch plant in North America, in Lexington, S.C.
In South Carolina, a large Juul plant in Lexington County that had been awarded tax abatements and grants closed after a federal ban on most flavored vapes in 2020, and politicians said they were glad to see it go. But officials in the same county awarded tax incentives to WiJo for its pouch factory last year.
The American tobacco industry has imported the technology for nicotine pouches from Sweden, often by purchasing that country’s companies. Altria bought Helix Sweden in a series of deals starting in 2019. Philip Morris International bought Swedish Match for $16 billion in 2022.
Garrett Nelson, a senior equity analyst at CFRA, said smoke-free nicotine products like pouches and vapes were generating new revenue for a tobacco industry that had appeared moribund.
“They are now viewed as growth companies, and there is a lot of optimism surrounding products like Zyn and IQOS and other smoke-free products,” Mr. Nelson said in an interview.
Zyn dominates the pouch market.
“If you look at the first quarter, they have 61 percent retail market share in dollar terms of the nicotine pouch market in the U.S. and, on a volume basis, about 56 percent of the market share,” Mr. Nelson said.
While most of Philip Morris International’s revenue continues to come from cigarettes, Zyn has helped the company to nearly double its share price in two years.
But the supposedly safer alternatives to traditional smoking haven’t quelled concerns about nicotine dependence. Symptoms include irritability, restlessness, trouble concentrating, anxiety, and appetite and mood changes.
The American Lung Association has sounded the alarm about pouches becoming the latest avenue for young people to develop an addiction. Citing similar concerns, in May the World Health Organization urged stricter regulation of them. In April, France went further by outlawing nicotine pouches, causing trade tensions with Sweden.
Sam Dashiell, a spokesman for PMI, disputed claims that these products targeted young people, saying pouches were being marketed to the 25 million adult Americans who still smoked cigarettes.
“Smoke-free products are a better option for current legal-age nicotine consumers who would otherwise continue smoking or using other traditional tobacco products,” Mr. Dashiell said.
Pouch proponents often cite the success in Sweden, where smoking rates have dropped considerably, and where the switch from cigarettes to pouches is sometimes called “the Swedish model.”
These products use nicotine extracted from tobacco leaves or synthetic nicotine, which is becoming more common. The pouches contain a powdered mix of nicotine, flavors and other ingredients that dissolve in the mouth.
Pouches are often promoted as more than a cigarette replacement. Some MAHA-aligned health influencers (a.k.a. Zynfluencers) endorse them as a hack for energy and cognitive enhancement. The conservative media host Tucker Carlson, who co-owns a pouch brand, promotes pairing nicotine and caffeine products “for a perfect coffee break.”
Mr. Dashiell said Phillip Morris International does not pay social media influencers to market its pouches.
Dr. Gina Kruse, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz who researches tobacco cessation, said more research was needed to determine the effects of nicotine pouches.
“A lot of the studies that have looked at things like the cytotoxicity of pouches, or the constituents, have come from industry,” she said. “And there’s an urgent need for more independent research to understand what risks come with these.”
She added that a broad concern centers on the potential for pouches to become an “on-ramp” to nicotine dependence, and entice people to move to harmful products like cigarettes. “And there’s certainly concern about flavors appealing to youths,” Dr. Kruse said.
A growing worry is that companies are raising the levels of nicotine, making the pouches more potent and more addictive, said Sven Jordt, a distinguished professor at Duke University School of Medicine.
Dr. Jordt, who is a member of the F.D.A.’s advisory committee on tobacco products, said the highest levels of nicotine in some popular pouches had risen from six to eight milligrams of nicotine per pouch to nine to 15 milligrams. “That’s definitely a quantum jump.”
The stronger pouches include Reynolds American’s Grizzly and Velo Plus, and Philip Morris International’s Zyn Ultra, he said.
“We need to investigate what happens in long-term use, to the whole digestive system,” he said.
“It’s another source of artificial sweeteners, with their own issues,” Dr. Jordt added. “What happens to sleep behavior, what happens to fertility? There have to be studies about oral health — how does it affect gum health?”
Dr. Jordt said Sweden was a cautionary tale: “Now they have an epidemic of oral tobacco use, and I think that might, unfortunately, be the future in the United States.”
The expansion of factories “signals the strategies of these companies for the future,” he said.
Mr. Pinto of Reynolds American said the company planned to spend $3.2 billion by 2030 to make more nicotine products, with pouches driving most of the expansion.
