'Alarming' rise in strong illicit nicotine pouches

High strength nicotine pouches that are being sold illegally in the UK could cause inadvertent overdosing and harm to teenagers and young adults, experts have warned.

Nicotine pouches - small sachets that fit under the top lip - are largely unregulated and there is currently no law stopping children from buying them.

Trading Standards teams in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Dorset have made more than 1,500 seizures in the past year.

The Oxfordshire team said it was seeing "significant growth" in illegal versions containing potentially dangerous levels of nicotine.

The government said new legislation would stop nicotine products being marketed to children and it was investing £30m in enforcement.

During the last 12 months, Oxfordshire Trading Standards has seized more than 900 packets of non-compliant nicotine pouches from retailers and launched several criminal investigations.

In Dorset, 844 seizures were made by officers and in Windsor and Maidenhead 21.

Because the products are fairly new there are no specific regulations covering advertising, strength or age restrictions.

Instead, they come under General Product Safety Regulations which means they need to be clearly labelled in English with safety guidelines.

Jody Kerman, head of Trading Standards at Oxfordshire County Council said: "Nicotine is a poison, you need to know who to if something goes wrong, what to do if you swallow it, how many is safe to have over a period of time.

"If it's not in English how are you supposed to know how to use it safely":[]}