AURORA | A $1.2 billion factory for Zyn nicotine products opened Monday in Aurora to loud cheers by government officials from both the city and the state.

The news drew jeers, however, from local health and teen advocates. 

The flavored nicotine pouches are a product of Philip Morris International, an international powerhouse in the tobacco industry that also sells Marlboro and Parliament brand cigarettes.

According to an annual report from the company in 2024, PMI sold nearly 617 million cigarettes that year, along with around 1 billion cans of oral tobacco products, like Zyn. 

Until today, the pouches were made in Kentucky and Sweden. They are illegal in the United Kingdom and most of the European Union, and in Denver.

PMI touted its new manufacturing facility in northeast Aurora, stating in a press release that its operation has planned $1.2 billion in investment for the project between 2024 and 2028. According to PMI, that includes land acquisition, facility construction, advanced manufacturing equipment, infrastructure development, and “future production capabilities.” 

The company projected that its new factory will create 500 permanent positions for engineers, production staff, and other roles in product manufacturing. Alongside the permanent jobs, PMI said the project’s construction generated around 5,000 construction jobs and that “1,000 indirect jobs [are] expected to be supported by facility operations.” 

PMI calls the facility a “manufacturing campus.” It sits on 780,000 square feet of prairie, south of DIA. 

Brian Erkkila, the head of scientific engagement for PMI-US, said that he was excited to put out a product that, in his view, would be a step toward harm reduction and getting people off of cigarettes, which another division of the company sells. 

“Zyn nicotine pouches are small pouches and, in that pouch. They are tobacco leaf-free, spit-free, but they deliver nicotine,” Erkkila explained. 

Available in 3 mg or 6 mg pouches, Zyn comes in a variety of flavors, many of them fruity. The flavors draw controversy to the products linked to accusations that the product is marketed to teens Purchasers must be 21 in Colorado.

Consumers dissolve the pouch between their upper lips and gums to absorb the nicotine. The effects last anywhere from 30 minutes to about an hour, according to Zyn details.

Erkkila said that the product has been on American markets for about 12 years now. According to representatives of PMI, Aurora was where the first container of Zyn pouches were sold in the United States.

Addressing health concerns linked to the product, Erkkila said that Zyn pouches were recently classified as a “modified risk tobacco product” by the Food and Drug Administration, which is a designation that indicates that the product could “reduce harm and the risk of tobacco-related disease to individual tobacco users.” 

In short, the suggestion is that cigarette smokers can use Zyn pouches to wean themselves off smoking tobacco, similar to nicotine patches and other nicotine substances.

Still, Zyn and similar tobacco-less nicotine products have come under fire for being tempting to youth or directly marketed to them. PMI officials emphasized their attempts to curb the use of their products by teens and other youth. Even as overall tobacco use has gone down, the 2025 National Youth Tobacco Study that the company cited saw that nicotine pouches were the one nicotine product that saw an increase among young users since the FDA started monitoring it in 2021. 

What are Elected Officials Saying? 

Aurora City Councilmember Amy Wiles said that, although most of the work PMI had done on this was prior to her election, she was optimistic that the company would be a “great partner with our city.” 

“They’re looking at ways that they can support small businesses,” Wiles said. “They’re doing a great job of hiring locally, and they’re being really responsible in the way that they’re approaching their building, their hiring, and the industry overall.” 

Wiles added that in the talks she has been privy to at the municipal level, PMI has expressed interest in sponsoring community programs, although the details haven’t been completed.

Councilmember Allison Coombs said that she hoped that the facility would create good, high-paying jobs for people in Aurora. 

PMI-US “and their ZYN product, which they have submitted an application to be approved as a smoking cessation product, but is currently on the market as a general product, is the result of a partnership between the city, Adams County, and the State of Colorado, to bring this factory here,” Coombs said, adding that the company has committed into wide overall investments into the city. 

Stacey Kennedy, the U.S. CEO for PMI, thanked both Gov. Jared Polis and Mayor Mike Coffman for working with the company to bring the facility to Aurora. 

“This is truly a transformative day for the City of Aurora,” Coffman said. “This facility is a $1 million investment in this campus. The 500 direct jobs being created and the broader impact on the greater metro economy is a reflection of a belief in the city and support for the state, and the promise of a strong economic future for our residents.” 

Coffman lauded PMI’s efforts to support community institutions, namely the monetary support the company has provided to Aurora Water Cares, the Community College of Aurora, and a variety of veterans’ affairs programs.

Polis remarked on how fast the campus was planned and then created.

“19 months between groundbreaking to completion, I think that’s one of the many reasons that PMI chose Colorado,” Polis said. “They knew we had a can-do attitude. There are states where they would have been bogged down in permitting for years — local land use, state air permits, all the various things that have to happen. But in Colorado, when we go in the right direction and work together, we can make things happen in record time.” 

Polis said that this new facility was a “powerful message to the business community and capital across the country that Colorado is the best place to invest in new business.” 

“I also deeply appreciate PMI’s deep philanthropic investment in our community,” Polis said. “For the next eight years, there will be $250,000 a year [from PMI] supporting transitional housing in Aurora and Adams County which is so needed for people to move into stable homes and stay connected to their community.” 

Polis ended by saying that the project proves that Aurora is a “new gateway to markets around the world” and proves that “Colorado is ready to compete in the global economy with partners in advanced manufacturing.” 

Youth Advocates and Those in Medical Community Raise Concerns Over Adolescent Nicotine Use

Pediatricians and medical professionals who work with young people are concerned that PMI’s marketing of Zyn runs the risk of creating more adults who are addicted to nicotine, according to Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felscher is a professor of pediatrics and population health at Stanford University who specifically focuses on the impact of nicotine on adolescents. 

“Many people believe — I certainly do — that nicotine is nicotine. No matter what form it comes in, so whether you’re talking about nicotine in the form of a nicotine pouch, a cigarette, an e-cigarette, hookah, or anything, nicotine is a problem and is bad to the developing brain,” Halpern-Felscher said.

“My big concern with nicotine pouches is that teenagers are starting or on-ramping to nicotine through pouches because of their popularity, their flavors, the buzz that they give,” Halpern-Flescher said. “We’re going to see them becoming addicted to nicotine through these pouches and either continue to use pouches or some other tobacco/nicotine product as adults.”

According to Halpern-Felscher, there is currently not a body of evidence to suggest that nicotine pouches will help adults transition off cigarettes or other tobacco products. 

Halpern-Felscher said that, according to her own research, she has seen an uptick in youth who say they have used tobacco and nicotine products. One study that Halpern-Flescher recently conducted found that there was a three-fold increase between 2023 to 2025 among high school age survey respondents who said they had used the product in the past 30 days. 

Halpern-Flescher pointed to recent history with e-Cigarettes as an example of a similar proposal that was billed as a model to reduce addiction, but that the ultimate results of these products is less cut and dry.

John Bailey, a longtime local sports coach and youth health  advocate, said he was disappointed at city officials welcoming ZYN into Aurora. 

Bailey and numerous health advocates and activists point to research showing that children of color, especially Black teens and advocates, are more likely to become addicted to nicotine, and that for years, the tobacco industry specifically targeted those communities.

“You look at the pushback against the vape pens and nicotine packets across the country and Aurora seems like it’s taking a step back,” John Bailey said. “For the mayor or anyone else to be celebrating this new facility is a slap in the face to the Black community and youth of color across this city.” 

Earlier in the year, the Aurora City Council placed some licensing restrictions on nicotine products, but stopped short of banning the sale of flavored nicotine products that some believe are marketed to children, such as in Denver. 

In 2024, Dr. Stacy Parra, a local pediatrician, penned an op-ed for the Sentinel voicing her opposition to the new factory, stating that she had seen “firsthand the devastating impact nicotine addiction can have on young lives.”

Parra warned that pediatric professionals and parents have to be more vigilant as the tobacco and nicotine product industry continues to “target young people”. 

According to the National Lung Association, nicotine pouches have yet to receive FDA-approval as a quit medication and that the current research suggests that the pouches run the risk of introducing younger consumers to nicotine. 

The Lung Association found that only 35% of adults who used nicotine pouches had previously smoked cigarettes and of those, only 10% were able to successfully stop smoking and switch to pouches completing. 

On nicotine pouches specifically, the association said: “This is not quitting, this is merely switching to another tobacco/nicotine product sold by the tobacco industry to sustain lifelong customers.” 

Additionally, the NLA noted that the biggest names in the nicotine pouch market have specifically targeted social media to advertise their product. A niche phenomenon that the association refers to as “Zynfluencers” promotes these products to increasingly larger audiences on TikTok and Instagram.

Halpern-Felscher has worked to create resources to combat addictions to oral nicotine and other smokeless tobacco products which have been adopted by school systems across the country. 

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