FDA authorized Zyn nicotine pouches without knowing what they were made of

KingMachiavelli

Don’t many medications and medical devices contain microplastics either on purpose (fillers) or un-avoidable (plasticizers in IV tubing). Unless the FDA has an existing microplastics policy, it would be weird to inconsistently apply it. Lots of dental stuff like Invisalign or even regular braces involve keeping plastic and adhesives in the mouth for long periods of time. I think even some gum (non-nicotine or otherwise) contain plastics technically.

abeppu

I think this is silly. This is a product designed to deliver nicotine, and that's going to continue to be the important part for health considerations. Had the FDA become concerned about the pouch material, and a different pouch material had been swapped in, it would still be a product designed to deliver nicotine. If it's used in a way that gets people away from smoking, maybe it can have an impact of decreased cancer risk. If used by people who weren't going to smoke, then maybe the impacts to blood pressure, heart rate, and heart disease risk are going to dominate. The "maybe you accumulate more microplastics" impact is a rounding error.

burnt-resistor

The US approves and allows many things haphazardly because there's a lack of regulatory consistency, integrity, enforcement, and application of the precautionary principle. This plays Russian roulette with the public in the name of money.