School leaders are calling for proactive action to prevent students from purchasing nicotine pouches, with researchers warning the potency of products varies wildly and health risks remain unknown.
Schools leaders are calling for swift action to stop students accessing nicotine pouches.Principals want health authorities to be proactive in controlling the sale of pouches as researchers work to determine their nicotine concentration.
In the first two months of the year, officers from NSW Police and the Therapeutic Goods Administration seized 564 containers of nicotine pouches during raids on more than 100 retailers.School leaders are worried the prohibition of vapes may see students turn to other addictive products. "Our hope would be that the regulators will recognise this early and put in place mechanisms to actually control these products before they become really embedded in the way that vapes have become in quite a short period of time."While it is illegal to advertise nicotine pouches as a smoking cessation device in Australia, videos promoting the pouches have been circulated widely on social media platforms such as TikTok.
Dr Morgan's lab is filled with a variety of nicotine products, including hundreds of vapes that are sent to her lab after they have been confiscated at schools.A lack of regulation means the concentration of nicotine in each pouch can vary wildly, and the labelling can be misleading. She said the pouches were less harmful than smoking but still posed serious health risks to children.