On July 16, Philip Morris International, or PMI, held a news conference in Aurora attended by state and local officials announcing its plan to open a $600 million manufacturing facility for its oral nicotine product — Swedish Match ZYN. The PMI executive in attendance, Stacey Kennedy, called out the plant as important in the company’s plan for a “smoke-free world.”
Gov. Jared Polis and Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman trumpeted the positive economic impact of the plant, including the addition of 500 jobs to Aurora. The state is providing $4.5 million in job growth tax incentives to PMI, Aurora is adding $7.1 million in tax incentives, and Adams County is offering $4.3 million. PMI is committing some funds toward veterans’ groups ($2.5 million in total) and affordable housing ($250,000 annually for eight years).
I am not rejoicing, and you shouldn’t either. ZYN is yet another way for people to be dosed with nicotine and possibly another path to nicotine addiction for adolescents.
It is a tobacco-free pouch held invisibly in the mouth where nicotine is absorbed at addicting levels. It comes in two strengths (3 and 6 milligrams of nicotine) and multiple flavors like spearmint, citrus and cinnamon.
As a tobacco product, it is subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. ZYN is widely available but not yet approved by the FDA. Philip Morris International has submitted the required premarket tobacco product application, but the FDA has yet to act. Internet sales of ZYN were halted in June because sales in the District of Columbia were in violation of its ban on flavored tobacco products. Some municipalities in Colorado have implemented similar bans.
PMI wants a new facility because sales of ZYN have shot up dramatically over the past several years and there is a product shortage. In the first quarter of 2024, shipments were up 80% from the prior year. PMI sees profit while I see a public health threat.
The parallel with the epidemic of JUUL use among youth is striking and disturbing. Recall that JUUL use took off among adolescents because of its flavors, addiction-promoting chemistry, stylishness and ease of covert use. ZYN has appealing flavors, delivers sufficient nicotine to addicts and its use is not visible. Deja vu?
What does a smoke-free world mean for PMI? The goal is not a nicotine-free world but one where people have moved from combustible cigarettes — like Marlboro, long the leading brand for Philip Morris — to an array of PMI’s smoke-free products that remain addicting. ZYN is just one of the smoke-free products now available from PMI.
There are also IQOS, a heat-not-burn device, and Swedish Match Snus, a tobacco-containing oral pouch. The company’s website headlines its commitment to “delivering a smoke-free future” with a target of more than two-thirds of products being smoke-free by 2030.
PMI and others argue that smokeless products offer “harm reduction.” If the comparison is tailpipe-equivalent smoke from cigarettes, then, without argument, the toxicity of ZYN for its users is lower. But, we also need to weigh what will happen to the adolescents and young adults who start their nicotine addiction journey with ZYN. That journey may continue for decades and end with addiction to nicotine from cigarettes. We don’t know.
We do know that flavored products are attractive to youth and that they are accessible, no matter the claims made by PMI about safeguards against youth access in its news release announcing the Aurora facility. Harm reduction for smokers from using ZYN may bring harm to youth for whom it is a gateway.
Coloradans shouldn’t want PMI in their community. Remember that its predecessor, Philip Morris, was found guilty of fraud and racketeering in the litigation against “Big Tobacco” brought by the Department of Justice under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
I testified in that litigation on the fraud of advancing lower tar and nicotine yield cigarettes as a means to harm reduction. With its history in mind, I can’t accept PMI as a neighbor concerned about public health. Its Foundation for a Smokefree World, funded in 2017, proved to be untrustworthy.
The modest contributions that PMI will make toward veterans and affordable housing are typical window-dressing examples of so-called corporate social responsibility. And, why should we subsidize the move of PMI into our community? Its net revenues in 2023 were $84.6 billion. What are we trading off to make funds available to PMI?
From the perspective of economic development, the elected leaders laud the arrival of PMI in Aurora. From the public health perspective, we shouldn’t. Aurora will do just fine without a factory producing an addicting product — made in Colorado.
Dr. Jonathan Samet, a faculty member of the Colorado School of Public Health, is a pulmonary physician and epidemiologist who has focused on tobacco control throughout his career. The opinions expressed here are his and do not reflect an official position on behalf of the University of Colorado or the Colorado School of Public Health.
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