AURORA — Aurora is now home to a new nicotine pouch manufacturing facility with the official ribbon cutting taking place on Monday. Philip Morris International (PMI) completed the 780,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in 19 months. Denver7 has previously covered the different stances in the community .
Dr. Brian Erkkila with Philip Morris International said ZYN was first sold in Colorado in 2014. In June, he said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products as modified risk tobacco products.
“When you light a cigarette on fire, it’s releasing thousands of chemicals. They cause cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease. So, when you switch to ZYN, your reducing your exposure to harmful chemicals by like 99%. So it’s a much lower risk product, but also it delivers nicotine well enough that people actually can switch away from those more harmful products like cigarettes and smokeless tobacco,” Erkkila said.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony, Governor Jared Polis reflected on the speed of the project having stood in the empty field 19 months ago…