There is an alarming rise in illicit nicotine pouches in the UK posing a health risk to children, as ITV News Digital Political Reporter Lewis Denison reports
The education secretary has issued a health warning after ITV News uncovered a huge rise in illicit nicotine pouches flooding the UK.
Nicotine pouches - a product growing in popularity among teenagers - are legal and originally designed to help people quit smoking.
However, Trading Standards has been seizing tens of thousands of them - often super strength - because they do not meet the legal requirements around labelling or safety warnings.
The products are unregulated, meaning there is no limit to their nicotine content, and it's entirely legal for children to buy them.
Through Freedom of Information requests, ITV News has found a year-on-year increase of 112% in seizures of nicotine pouches by Trading Standards teams across the UK.
In the 12 months to February 2024, there were 3,914 seizures. That yearly number more than doubled to 8,306 by February 2025.
Seizures of nicotine pouches since 2023 have also risen by well over 1,000% in many areas.
Just days after responding to our request for information, Kent Trading Standards seized 66,000 tubs of nicotine pouches at the port in Dover.
Principle Trading Standards Officer Oliver Jewel said the products were first noticed on the market in 2018 "but it has absolutely been in the last 18 months there's been this rush to market of so many different brands".
He said: "At last count, we were looking somewhere between 70 and 100 different types of nicotine pouch we were seeing on the market. So this rush to market it is in some respects a race to the bottom, with all these different companies trying to outdo themselves with the the wild flavours and the fanciful packaging."
Asked why he's so concerned about them, Mr Jewel said: "Nicotine is a poison, so anybody, if they're using too many of them, could get nicotine poisoning - which if you have too many, it could be fatal.
"But similarly, a lot of these products are being sold in shops. They'll be front and centre on the display, alongside other products and they can in some cases be confused with sweets."
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Their popularity has doubled since 2020, according to researchers at Kings College London, who say 1% of adults use them. But worryingly, even more 11 to 18-year-olds do, with 1.2% using nicotine pouches.
Nicotine pouches are often referred to as "snus", however that is a different product popular in Scandinavia which contains tobacco and has been illegal in the UK since the 90s.
Like vapes, nicotine pouches are usually branded in a way which would be appealing to children, with bright colours and sweet flavours, which could explain why they are rising in popularity among teens.
They are even more popular with another group of people who have a huge influence on children - professional footballers.
A study last year by Loughborough University found around one in five professional footballers are using nicotine pouches or snus.
It's also an issue in schools, with a recent survey by teaching union NASUWT finding 40% of teachers say pupils are misusing nicotine pouches or snus in school.
James Whitehead, from Doncaster, bought some from the internet when he was 17, but he was caught by his mother, Kellie. She decided they'd take them together - and it did not go well.
Placed behind the lip, the sachets release nicotine into the bloodstream, but some of them contain around 15 times the amount of nicotine as cigarettes.
While this strength could be suitable for someone already addicted to nicotine, it could make someone without a tolerance feel extremely poorly - a temporary feeling known as "nic sick", or nicotine sickness.
James, who had some tolerance to nicotine through vapes, felt instantly light-headed but it quickly got much worse.
"It soon turns into like, 'This is too strong'... Lightheaded, dizzy. And eventually I was sick."
He added: "I didn't think it would be that bad. Like there was a span of two or three times where I threw up."
His mum Kellie, a cigarette smoker, was even more surprised by their strength.
"They were just so strong. For me, it was immediate - and I've been smoking, using nicotine, for over 20 years.
"There was no real indication apart from a milligram amount on the pack, which didn't mean anything to me, so we had no idea that the pouches James had bought were the strongest strength."
"It was such a quick and strong physical reaction that it did really just make me think, 'What on earth would this do to a youngster?'"
Kellie added: "I find the lack of information, the lack of clarity on labeling, the lack of legislation actually really quite scary because the market - like it is with vapes - is flooded."
Listen to our What You Need to Know podcast to learn more about nicotine pouches
Dr Harry Tattan-Birch, a senior research fellow and statistician at University College London who has extensively researched the impacts of nicotine, explained how much worse nicotine sickness can be with pouches compared to cigarettes.
"[Nicotine sickness] is a term that's used for if someone has too much nicotine, then they will feel this extreme bout of nausea," he told ITV News.
"The problem with nicotine pouches is that there's a delay from when someone uses the product until when the nicotine takes its full effect.
"So unlike with a cigarette, where within a couple of seconds, the effect of the nicotine is obvious and someone can stop using if they're feeling too much, they might have a pouch in their gums for a couple of minutes before realising that they have had too much. Then that could make them feel nauseous for several hours afterwards."
Anyone curious about nicotine sickness can find countless videos on TikTok and Instagram of users taking too many nicotine pouches to make themselves vomit.
While the unpleasant feeling of nicotine sickness may only be short-lived, the long term impacts of youngsters using nicotine pouches can be much worse.
"Getting addicted to nicotine can have serious health and mental health implications," explained Mr Tattan-Birch, who also pointed out that they are much less harmful than cigarettes.
But for people without prior addiction, he thinks they are taking unnecessary health risks.
"[Nicotine] is not the core reason for the most of the health harms of smoking, unlike some people think," he said. "It is linked to heart problems, potentially mental health issues related to to smoking - and there's the risk of dependance that some people see as a negative in itself, because they don't want to be dependent on using a product repeatedly."
He added that becoming addicted at an early age "might be one of the reasons why we see higher rates of mental health conditions in people who use nicotine products, because it's this sort of, highs and lows that you see with being dependent on a product".
A cigarette typically contains between 10 and 12mg of nicotine and smokers get around 2mg of that. Many nicotine pouches contain similar levels of nicotine, but some super strength products contain 150mg per pouch.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will phase out smoking and ban disposable vapes as its two flagship policies, will also stop nicotine pouches being branded towards and sold to children.
However, it will not restrict their strength, so experts like Dr Tattan-Birch want the government to consider limiting their nicotine content.
Asked if they would, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: "We'll obviously continue to keep under review if there is any further action that's needed.
"But again, the health consequences are really serious and it's important that parents understand, just how very serious some of these consequences can be and are able to take action to support their children too."
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