Rhiannon Ingle
I'm sure many of us are trying our best at keeping to all the New Year's resolutions we set for ourselves a little over a week ago.
From swearing you'll hit the gym more than once every fortnight and promising to cook more meals at home to challenging yourself to Dry January and cutting back on your other vices - this month is definitely the time to break old habits and replace them with new ones.
However, there are some habits that are clearly harder to kick hence why a warning has now been issued to parents over snus as it becomes more popular than vaping.
Advert
Now, in case you've not got a clue what snus is - it is basically a tobacco product that looks like tiny little teabag pillows.
Snus, which originates from Sweden, is a little dry pouch of tobacco that is placed under a person’s lip for about thirty minutes - and is often compared to being a single-use teabag of cigarettes.
Recent studies have suggested the use of such pouches among adults has doubled in the last two years alone and it seems it may be the next big thing as, by 2026, it has been predicted that the nicotine pouch industry could be worth as much as a staggering $33 billion (£26 billion).
Swedish snus is banned in the UK so the nicotine pouches here do not actually contain any tobacco but, because they still contain nicotine, they are still addictive.
Libby Clarke, a Managing Consultant of Toxicology, told Cosmopolitan: "Nicotine from oral products is absorbed more slowly compared with inhaled products like cigarettes or vapes, therefore the addictive potential is thought to be lower."
We don't yet have a whole lot of information about how safe or not the pouches are but pharmacist Ian Budd explained: "The information we do have does not paint it in an entirely positive light.
"As snus contains nicotine, it is seen as an addictive substance, as it’s the nicotine in tobacco products that causes addiction in the first place.
"Some studies have shown that there may be a link to higher rates of pancreatic cancer, heart failure, and diabetes, although research is still ongoing."
Clarke also highlighted the pretty grim-looking oral lesions which can occur through heavy usage of snus or nicotine pouches, noting: "This may be mitigated by changing the placement position of pouches."
While Clarke pointed to research papers which suggest that using snus and nicotine pouches has fewer risks when compared to smoking, Budd emphasised that the best thing to do was to refrain from using tobacco and nicotine products altogether.
"We would never recommend the use of snus or nicotine pouches for those who don’t smoke already," he advised.