For the past several years, American toddlers have been accidentally poisoning themselves with nicotine pouches at an alarming rate. According to a study out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, cases of kids under six ingesting these “white snus” pouches jumped an incredible 763 percent over just three years.
White snus, for those who have never been or no longer in the thrall of nicotine, are these little white pouches that look like smelling salts. They can give you just as much of a kick as one if you’re a nicotine novice. They’re filled with flavored nicotine powder and are meant to be tucked between the gum and your lip for a slow and steady nicotine buzz.
They’re sweet, and they smell like candy and often come in brightly colored packaging that makes toddlers think it’s kid food. Once swallowed, however, these pouches become extremely dangerous to children, becoming 1.5 times more likely to cause serious medical outcomes and twice as likely to land a kid in the hospital than if they had ingested e-liquids or nicotine gum.
The study tracked 134,663 nicotine ingestion cases in young children between 2010 and 2023, with the vast majority happening at home and involving kids younger than two. While the 2015 Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act, which mandated child-resistant packaging for liquid nicotine, helped bend the curve downward for vape juice incidents, pouches have since emerged as a whole new source of accidental ingestion incidents.
While overall rates have declined since the 2015 legislation, liquid nicotine still leads in incidents. The legislation works, but loopholes—like pouch products with cutesy names and fruity flavors—created a whole new problem that Congress is not fast enough to resolve.
The researchers are calling for tighter rules around packaging and branding, along with a full ban on candy flavors that make these products irresistible to preschoolers, teens, and every stage of development in between. Until then, experts urge adults to store all nicotine products in locked containers, keep them out of sight, and use them away from kids.
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