Ukrainian doctors call to limit nicotine pads due to health risks
16 December 18:50
A group of Ukrainian doctors and medical specialists has appealed to the Verkhovna Rada to urgently regulate the sale of nicotine-containing products for oral use, known as nicotine pads (snus), "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Doctors emphasize that the uncontrollably high nicotine content in these products poses a serious risk of acute poisoning and severe addiction among consumers.
Unlimited concentration and risk of poisoning
The main demand of doctors representing the fields of cardiology and respiratory medicine is for unlimited nicotine content in the pads, which is currently legal in Ukraine.
- Modern nicotine pads can contain up to 160-170 mg of nicotine.
- This is a dose that is ten times higher than the amount of nicotine that enters the body when smoking a single cigarette.
- Such a high concentration “creates a threat of acute poisoning” despite the absence of tobacco.
Nicotine and addiction
Doctors confirm that nicotine itself does not cause cancer or cardiovascular disease in the long term. However, its consumption creates another, no less serious problem:
“Nicotine itself does not cause cancer or cardiovascular disease in the long term, but it is highly addictive.”
Nicotine addiction is recognized as a disease that requires treatment and can manifest itself in stress, irritability, and concentration problems.
Key requirements for the Verkhovna Rada
To reduce the risks, the medical community suggests that lawmakers adopt a set of measures that meet the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO):
- Ban the sale of pads containing more than 16.6 mg of nicotine. This dose corresponds to the concentration of nicotine in the blood after smoking one cigarette and is considered more controllable.
- Prohibit additives that contain or produce carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic substances.
- Establish a ban on marketing, restrictions on advertising and promotion of all nicotine-containing products, and introduce mandatory warnings and taxation.
Doctors urge MPs to listen to the recommendations of experts to reduce the risks to public health caused by the unregulated market of nicotine products.
