Recent data from the 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, analyzed by the FDA, show that youth tobacco use in the United States has fallen to historic lows. Current use of tobacco products, combustible tobacco products, and e-cigarettes declined between 2022 and 2025. Notably, youth use of nicotine pouches remained low and stable, with 1.7 percent of students reporting current use in 2025, compared with 1.8 percent in 2024. This progress is the result of years of prevention work, stronger age restrictions, and public education, reflecting a broad consensus that tobacco and nicotine products should not be used by anyone under the legal age.
However, while youth prevention efforts have succeeded, adult smoking remains a persistent public health challenge. According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, with millions of adults continuing to smoke despite decades of warnings and restrictions. Complete cessation is always the best choice for health, but for adults who would otherwise continue smoking, access to accurate information about scientifically substantiated smoke-free nicotine alternatives is crucial.
In this context, the FDA's recent action on ZYN nicotine pouches is significant. After scientific review, the agency issued modified risk orders for 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products, allowing them to be marketed with a specific FDA-authorized claim: "using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts adults at lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis." The FDA did not say these products are safe, nor did it encourage non-users to start. The authorization is intended to help adults who smoke better understand relative risk.
This distinction is important. Nicotine products are addictive and not risk-free. They are not substitutes for quitting tobacco and nicotine altogether, and they are not intended as nicotine replacement therapies like patches or gums. But science-based policy should recognize meaningful differences in risk between cigarettes and smoke-free nicotine products for adults who switch completely.
The latest youth tobacco data show that these goals are not mutually exclusive. Historically low youth tobacco use can coexist with a marketplace that includes FDA-authorized smoke-free alternatives for adults. Keeping youth use low requires continued discipline from regulators, retailers, manufacturers, parents, educators, and public health leaders.
PMI U.S. has been clear that smoke-free nicotine products are for current nicotine consumers who are 21 and older—not youth, not non-users, and not people trying to quit nicotine altogether. The company's responsible marketing practices reflect that commitment. Advertising features only individuals aged 35 or older. Branded websites require independent online age verification for visitors 21 and older. PMI U.S. limits its social media presence to platforms that allow age-restricted controls and does not pay social media influencers to endorse its products or engage in product placement in movies or television programs.
These practices are part of a broader 10-point approach to underage prevention that includes age-gated website access, monitoring of underage-use data, responsible marketing standards, retail technology advancement, responsible social media policies, FDA regulation, continued innovation for age restriction, support for enforcement against illicit products, responsible retail practices, and support for compliance checks such as mystery shopping by the FDA.
No single company, regulator, or public health organization can do this alone. The right framework is practical and evidence-based: keep nicotine products away from anyone under 21, enforce minimum age of purchase laws, address illicit products, maintain clear product standards, and require responsible marketing.
The United States has made extraordinary progress reducing youth tobacco use. That progress is worth protecting. The next step is to bring the same seriousness to the adults who still smoke. A mature tobacco policy should be able to do both: prevent young people from starting and help adults who continue to smoke move to better alternatives. Those goals belong together.
