Four years into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s review of Zyn nicotine pouches, and not long before the agency approved them for sale, an FDA toxicologist ran some informal tests in her kitchen that led her to question whether the agency truly understood the addictive product it was about to green-light.
Christy Leppanen worked for the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, where she led a project examining the potential for microplastics exposure. A scientist who had worked on an environmental assessment of Zyn had repeatedly told her that the nicotine pouches melt in the mouth. But during a public health conference in late 2024, Leppanen said, she talked to an academic who reinforced her understanding that they don’t.
The FDA allowed stores to sell Zyn while it evaluated the product. On the way home from the conference, Leppanen said, she went to the Mall of America, bought a can of menthol-flavored Zyn, and took it home. She put the pouches in her mouth. She soaked them in a cup with saliva. She heated them in the microwave, crushed them, and sucked them. They did not dissolve.
Over the course of the next several weeks, Leppanen said, she pushed her colleagues to consider possible health and environmental risks from the pouch material. She was repeatedly rebuffed.
