My father died from a smoking-related disease. As a physician, I have seen versions of his story repeated too many times: patients who knew cigarettes were harming them, wanted to stop, tried to stop — and still could not fully break free. That experience shaped my view of public health long before I served as Secretary of Health and Human Services. It taught me a lesson Washington too often forgets: If we want to reduce the death and disease caused by smoking, we have to meet adult smokers where they are, not where we wish they were.
That is why the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision authorizing modified-risk claims for certain ZYN nicotine pouch products matters. The agency concluded that these specific products may be marketed with the statement that using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts adults at lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. This was not a slogan or a political compromise — it was the result of a federal scientific review under a demanding statutory standard.
