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89% of Icelanders call nicotine pouches harmful as Reykjavík weighs flavor limits

Iceland's health ministry has published a draft bill proposing plain packaging, a nicotine-content cap, flavor restrictions, and a ban on cross-border pouch sales. A survey of 2,255 Icelanders released as the consultation closed found 89% consider nicotine pouches harmful — and data show Icelandic youth use pouches at the highest rate in the Nordics.

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Icelandnicotine pouchregulationflavor banplain packagingnicotine capNordicArtasanyouth useS-145/2026

Iceland is moving to tighten nicotine-pouch rules. A draft bill published by the country's Minister of Health in late July 2026 would bring in plain packaging, a maximum nicotine-content limit, new powers to restrict flavoured nicotine products, and a ban on cross-border distance sales — the broadest overhaul of the country's tobacco and nicotine framework in years.

The push lands alongside striking usage and perception data. A survey of 2,255 Icelandic adults, released as the public consultation on the bill closed, found that 89% consider nicotine pouches harmful to health. Research cited in the bill itself puts Iceland's youth pouch use at the highest level in the Nordic and Baltic region.

What the bill proposes

Iceland's Ministry of Health published draft legislation — bill S-145/2026 — on 28 July 2026, opening a public consultation that ran through 11 August and drew nearly 30 submissions on the official consultation portal. The proposals include:

  • Standardised (plain) packaging for all tobacco products, modelled on Norway's 2018 rules, which require uniform brown packaging.
  • A maximum nicotine content for nicotine products, though the draft does not yet specify the cap.
  • New powers for the Health Minister to restrict flavoured nicotine products, particularly those considered likely to appeal to children.
  • A ban on cross-border distance sales of nicotine and herbal smoking products, plus tighter controls on domestic online sales and home delivery.
  • Expanded restrictions on where tobacco and nicotine products may be used, with exemptions for nursing-home residents, long-term care patients, and hospital patients.
  • Stronger penalty provisions and an alignment of the rules governing conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

Nicotine pouches are currently sold legally across Iceland. If adopted, the bill would represent the country's most significant tightening of how those products can be formulated, packaged, and sold.

Why it matters: the Nordic's highest youth pouch use

The case for tougher rules is built on usage data that stands out even in a pouch-saturated region. Research by the Nordic Welfare Centre, cited in the bill's explanatory memorandum, found that 33% of 18-to-24-year-olds in Iceland use nicotine pouches — the highest proportion among the Nordic and Baltic countries surveyed.

A parallel survey, conducted by pollster Maskína in late July 2026 among 2,255 adults aged 18 and over and commissioned by pharmaceutical and health-products company Artasan, fills in the broader picture:

  • 89% consider nicotine pouches harmful — 56% "very harmful" and 33% "fairly harmful."
  • 74% are very concerned about growing pouch use among young people.
  • 16.5% of adults regularly use nicotine pouches, rising to 32.4% among 25-to-29-year-olds and 24.9% among under-25s. Men (20.3%) use them more than women (12.4%).
  • 71% want the government to do more to help people stop using nicotine pouches; 64% want more emphasis on helping people quit smoking.
  • 57% support selling nicotine-replacement medicines outside pharmacies, in grocery stores or kiosks — something already permitted in other Nordic countries.

For context, cigarette smoking in the same survey sat at just over 6% regular use, with nicotine e-cigarettes at 9.8%. Around 68% of respondents used neither nicotine products nor nicotine medicines. In other words, nicotine pouches have overtaken both cigarettes and vapes as the country's leading non-medical nicotine product — and the public notices.

What's next

The consultation has closed and the bill is now in processing. The specifics that will determine its real impact — the nicotine-content cap, which flavours survive, how domestic online sales are restricted — are not yet fixed in the draft. Iceland's path mirrors the regulatory arc already playing out across Europe: Finland set a 16 mg/g cap and flavor ban earlier in 2026, Estonia's proposed 4 mg cap was blocked, and the EU is weighing bloc-wide flavour and tax rules.

One open question is whether the government treats nicotine pouches differently from medicinal nicotine. Artasan, which published the survey alongside its consultation response, argued for a clearer distinction between nicotine medicines and general nicotine products like pouches — and for easier access to medicinal nicotine for people who want to quit. That framing, if it wins out, would separate regulated cessation aids from the recreational pouch category the bill is trying to restrain.

Iceland is a small market, but it's a meaningful signal: a country where pouch use has climbed fastest is now moving hardest to push it back.

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