Curt Enzel: The Father of Nicotine Pouch

Curt Enzel sadly passed away in March this year. While Enzel might not be a household name, his work has had an incredible impact on millions of Swedes and others worldwide. In light of his passing, it’s a great time to celebrate the professor and his game-changing invention: the portioned snus pouch.

Pre 1970s snus

In the 1960s, snus was consumed very differently than it is today. It was still a moist, finely ground tobacco. However, it was sold loose.

To take the product, people would roll up the tobacco in a little ball and place it between the lip and gum.

While it was far safer to take than combustible cigarettes, there were a few drawbacks. For one, it was very messy: snus would stain your fingers and teeth. Moreover, without the correct skills the ball could break up in the consumer’s mouth.

It’s this messiness and lack of discretion that partly explains the unequal uptake of snus between Swedish men and women. The former would tolerate the mess, the latter would not. As a result, this created a health disparity in health and, in particular, lung cancer. Sadly, this disparity largely continued until the invention of the nicotine pouch, but that’s a story for another day. Ultimately both men and women were less likely to use snus and more likely to smoke because of the product being fiddly to use.

Enzell’s genius

Curt Enzell, a scientist working at the Swedish state-owned tobacco company Svenska Tobaks AB which would go on to become Swedish Match, was presented with a problem. Apparently, the care staff who were looking after snus users in care homes for the elderly weren’t so keen on the mess The product would create, so representatives contacted Svenska, asking if they could find a solution. By this time, Enzell had already solved the problem himself. Sat in the work canteen, he had started emptying tea bags, filling them with snus and popping them under his lip, which was at first met with bewilderment, then wonder, by colleagues. He had solved the issue for the care home staff – and later, albeit unwittingly, millions of snus users across the country.

For his idea he was paid 3,500 kronor –  £257.28 in today’s money.

Enzell was an accomplished scientist who was involved in over 700 published papers. His work at Tobaksbolaget led him to significant research on smoking, tobacco, and other nicotine products.

As a committed pipe smoker, Enzell was concerned about growing research at the time linking tobacco to various illnesses like cancer. While these links are well established now, at the time, they were just coming to light.

Enzell sensed that it was time to move to something healthier, and the pouch was his solution. Little did he know that his invention would go on to change smoking in Sweden by making snus more accessible.

Portioned snus was not an overnight success. In fact, it didn’t really start taking off until 1977. However, once it did, hundreds of thousands of Swedes had a harm-reduction alternative.

It’s hard to estimate how many lives Enzell’s invention has saved. Indeed, his portioned snus is now being used by nicotine pouch manufacturers, which offers another vastly safer alternative to smoking,.

Sweden has Europe’s lowest smoking rates. It is now “smoke-free” to use the UN’s term for countries with a smoking prevalence of under 5%. Thankfully, Enzell got to live to 94 and see the impact that his invention had on his country’s citizens and mortality rates.

An innovator who changed history

Nikola Tesla once said that “The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” There is little doubt that the present that Enzell has created is a better world, one in which millions of lives have been touched. Thanks to him they will live longer healthier lives without the detrimental illnesses caused by combustible cigarettes, whilst still enjoying the positive effects of nicotine.

History is littered with such people who made incredible contributions to humanity but without a lot of fanfare. People like Alice Ball, an American scientist who created a vaccine for leprosy. The microbiologist Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who developed vaccines for a range of diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella. Another favourite of mine, Norman Borlaug , was the father of genetically modified crops. HE is credited with saving a billion lives working in Mexico, India and sub-saharan Africa to increase crop yields by many multiples.

It’s important that history does not forget people like Curt Enzell, who had a huge impact on public health.

The mainstream media would never celebrate someone who worked in the tobacco industry and we can’t do a lot to change these people’s prejudices. However, we can ensure that Enzell gets his deserved place in the history of both snus and harm reduction.

For me Enzell is a man who deserves to be celebrated and his impact on the people of Sweden has been profound – given the chance, the product he birthed could save millions of lives globally.

Sadly, ignorant politicians have stymied and even banned his invention. Without the portioned snus I know I would never have been able to use it to help me stop smoking.

So from me, thank you Curt.