Number of nicotine poisonings in kids skyrockets with pouches becoming more common

The number of nicotine poisonings in kids has skyrocketed with pouches becoming more common.

Zyns, a nicotine pouch placed between a person’s gum and lip, have quickly risen to popularity as a way to get a nicotine hit without smoking. But nicotine pouches such as these can be a danger to kids if the container is left unsupervised.

A study published Monday in the American Academy of Pediatrics found there were more than 134,000 nicotine ingestions among children younger than the age of six reported to poison centers from 2010 to 2023.

Most of the poisoned children were younger than two years old, and almost all of the poisonings happened at home.

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While the rate of nicotine poisonings decreased from 2015 to 2023, it was mostly thanks to a decrease in poisonings from liquid nicotine used in vapes.

The rate of nicotine pouch poisonings has increased by about 763 percent from 2020 to 2023. Nicotine pouches were also more likely “to be associated with a serious medical outcome or medical admission than other product formulations combined,” researchers wrote in the study.

Most of the poisonings had no effect or a minor effect on the children, but there were 39 ingestions with major effects and two deaths. The two deaths were in children under the age of two who ingested liquid nicotine, NBC News reported.

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Dr. Molly O’Shea, a Michigan pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told NBC News, “It was just a matter of time before they fell into the hands of younger kids.”

Those nearly 40 children who had major effects experienced trouble breathing and seizures, Dr. Natalie Rine, an author of the study and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, told NBC News.

Rine said the “two deaths is a lot, especially for something considered a preventable death.”

O’Shea suggested parents keep their nicotine products “locked away” instead of in a purse, pocket or on a counter.