Nicotine pouch poisonings soar in babies and toddlers

The number of young children is slowed down after getting their hands on nicotine products such as pockets and vaping e-liquids has skyrocketed in recent years.

From 2010 to 2023, American poison centers brought in 134,663 cases of nicotine poisoning in children under the age of 6, according to a study published Monday in Pediatrics, a newspaper of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Almost all occurred at home.

The cases included exhibitions to nicotine pockets, chewing tobacco, regular cigarettes, vapes and nicotine replacement products such as gum and pastilles.

But it is nicotine pockets, like the extremely popular Zyn, which is at the origin of the most important increase in accidental poisoning of nicotine in young children.

The new research has revealed that the poisoning rate involving pockets of nicotine in children under 6 years old went from 0.48 per 100,000 children in 2020 to 4.14 per 100,000 in 2023.

This represents an increase of 763% in just three years – a surprising observation which is in correlation with an increase in sales of nicotine pockets.

Nicotine pockets – that users break between their lip and gum and subsequent reject – can contain up to 6 milligrams of nicotine, a stimulant, and have been promoted as tobacco -free, spindle and hands -free alternatives to cigarettes and tobacco chewing.

However, they are not approved by Food and Drug Administration as nicotine replacement products used to help quit smoking.

A study in 2021 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Bureau of Smoking and Health (one of the many public health groups dismantled under the Trump administration) revealed that nicotine pocket sales have increased spectacular in the last decade, from $ 709,000 in 2016 to $ 216 million by mid-2010.

“It was just a matter of time before they fell into the hands of young children,” said Dr. Molly O’Shea, a pediatrician of Michigan and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “It’s unfortunate, but not shocking.”

Why is nicotine toxic to small children?

Nicotine is a very toxic chemical and could easily exceed a fatal dose in small children, according to a 2013 study.

The chemical increases heart rate and blood pressure and could cause nausea, vomiting or even coma, have written the authors of the study.

Most of the cases included in the new research were not serious enough to justify medical care. But 39 children have had significant side effects, such as difficulty breathing and crises, said Natalie Rine, author of the new study and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center of the Children’s Hospital of Columbus.

Most cases of nicotine poisoning, 76%, were babies and toddlers under 2 years of age.

Two children, a 1 year old boy and another boy about a year and a half, died after ingesting liquid nicotine used in vapes.

“It is good that the majority of children in the study are doing well. Most children had minor symptoms or without symptoms and do not need medical management,” said Rine. “But two deaths are a lot, especially for something like a avoidable death.”

How to reduce nicotine poisoning in children

Children are curious by nature. Babies and toddlers in particular explore their worlds by putting things in their mouths.

And they are masters to walk in the drawers and cabinets to find new “toys”. Nicotine pocket cans are not equipped with children’s resistant packaging. They also taste good. Mint and fruit flavors are almost always added.

O’Shea said it is essential that all nicotine products are placed far out of the reach of children. “This does not mean in your handbag, in your back pocket or on the counter,” she said. “It means locked up.”

It is not only parents and other adult caregivers who must be aware of their nicotine products. An April study of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California revealed that the use of pockets of nicotine in high school students has almost doubled between 2023 and 2024.

“It is easy for a teenager to use this product and not be aware of the parents,” said O’Shea. “It is important that parents speak with their teenagers of products like this and to have an open dialogue without judgment in order to determine any risk.”

Rine also recommends adding the national number of poison control to mobile phones: 1-800-222-1222.