Men's Health Month 2026

June is Men's Health Month. Men's health is shaped by relationships - families, caregivers, friends, and communities at every stage of life.

When men are supported via connection, education, and shared advocacy, they seek care, stay engaged in their health, and live healthier, longer lives.

As partners in care, we're taking this opportunity to highlight an important topic by sharing an article from Men's Health magazine and some local/regional data that puts a Mariposa County men's health issue into the spotlight.

Men's Health article

Tobacco/nicotine product use and the challenges of quitting are an especially serious issue in rural California and Mariposa County. We wanted to highlight this for Men's Health Month 2026, by sharing this article How to Quit Nicotine for Good, According to Real Guys Who Did It, published in the January/February 2026 issue of Men's Health.

We get to read the individual stories of four very real men and how they quit nicotine. The stories are brief, but each one provides a different experience using different nicotine products, their perspectives on quitting, personal strategies, and how they found success.

Aw, man... come on. Why are you picking on my one guilty pleasure? Can't you just leave it alone?

We're not picking on you. And no, we won't "leave it alone". In Mariposa County, 51% of the population is male. You are caregivers, role models, sweeties, and contributors in your communities. We care about you and your health!

Tobacco/nicotine product use is one of the three health risk behaviors, which elevates the risk of the four chronic diseases, that together, cause more than 50% of deaths, including premature deaths. This is called the 3-4-50 Framework.

Local/Regional Data

Okay, fine. I get it. Tobacco use isn't good for me. So why is this a "men's health" issue in Mariposa County?

These graphics from California Department of Public Health (CDPH), California Tobacco Prevention Program (CTPP) publications show tobacco use and planning to quit in California. The data gives us insight into how this may be experienced by folks in Mariposa County.

For example, in the first graphic, from California Tobacco Facts & Figures 2025, we see that 14.9% of California males of any age currently use tobacco/nicotine products. And those males living in rural parts of California, like Mariposa County, have significantly higher rates of tobacco/nicotine use than those living in urban areas.

In the second and third graphics, both from Rural Health, Tobacco Harm: Tobacco Use and Its Impact on Rural Communities in California, we can see that the rural mountain region that includes Mariposa County experiences some of the highest adult tobacco use in California.

About 31-64% of adults who currently smoke cigarettes are thinking about quitting in the next 6 months.

Connecting the dots

Okay, well, if these dudes in the article were trying to quit smoking and vaping, and the pouches helped them quit, what's the problem?

First of all, did you read the article?

No. Not yet.

Okay stay with me. 'These dudes' in the article were trying to quit smoking/vaping by switching to pouches.

Yeah?

Switching isn't quitting.

Nicotine pouches are not FDA-authorized smoking cessation/quitting aids. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), like patches, gum, lozenges, nasal sprays... These NRT products are designed for the user to switch from cigarettes/vapes/dip/etc., then gradually reduce the nicotine strength, until they are able to stop using any nicotine products entirely. That's quitting.

"Harm reduction" campaigns

Unlike NRT, nicotine pouches are simply not designed to help people quit. They're made with increasingly higher nicotine strengths. That's a product designed to keep people coming back for more. Not weaning them off entirely.

But the tobacco industry, manufacturers, media, and advocates have promoted pouches as 'harm reduction' products. The pouches are being promoted as a new, safe way to quit.

Yeah?... and that still doesn't answer the question.

Which question?

What's the problem?!... Okay it's "switching", not "quitting." But, if it stopped them from smoking or vaping, aren't pouches better?

Well, that depends.

Ugh, come on...

We know combustible products like cigarettes are deadly. They are the number one cause of preventable death in the US.

Exactly.

So are pouches the wonderful 'harm reduction' product the industry is claiming they are?

We shall see.

We only get to see the actual health impacts of any product with longitudinal studies, which collect data over long periods of time.

That's how we found out that cigarettes and smokeless tobacco were cancer-causing and contributed to diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory disease, not to mention fertility issues. Only after a hundred years of building up a customer base that has led to a global tobacco industry expected to grow to almost $950 billion in 2026.

Pouches have played a big part in that growth. As did vapes and e-cigarettes - the industry's previous harm reduction tool that would help people quit smoking. "Harm reduction" doesn't mean harmless. The industry tried that claim with e-cigarettes and vapes, claiming people were inhaling "harmless water vapor."

Its taken almost 20 years for the data to reveal the health impacts of vapes and e-cigarettes. In late-March 2026, a qualitative study from Australia found that vapes and e-cigarettes are indeed cancer causing. (If you don't want to read that article, here's a YouTube video "Landmark study exposes link to vaping and cancer".)

Nicotine pouches contain nicotine salts that make direct contact with your mucous membranes in the mouth, just like smokeless tobacco. Saliva in the mouth soaks into the pouch, mixes with the nicotine salt, and is absorbed in the lip, gum, and everything it touches.

Unlike smokeless tobacco, pouches are spitless. So, in addition to contact in the mouth, the saliva is swallowed, gradually dribbling down the esophagus and into the gastrointestinal tract.

Again, we won't know the actual health impacts for a long time. So if people want to trust the 'harm reduction' campaign the industry is spinning, that's a decision for them to make.

Many people across the US, especially males, like 'the dudes in the article,' are switching to nicotine pouches to get off of cigarettes/vapes. But in many cases, they end up becoming dual-users of both products - the nicotine pouches and the vapes or cigarettes they were trying to quit.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I just don't know that this is a big problem locally.

Our local demographics fit the profile.

The North American Quitline Consortium studied people using nicotine pouches in their attempts to quit e-cigarettes/vapes, as well as cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco. They found that males were significantly more likely to use nicotine pouches to quit, than females.

And we know from the Journal of American Medical Association that young, non-Hispanic White males and those living in rural areas are more likely to use nicotine pouches than any other demographic.

Okay. Cigarettes bad. Vapes bad. Pouches bad. Quitting good. ...But quitting is hard! I've tried it. It doesn't work. I always go back to it and feel like a loser. ...I mean, it's easier said than done.

Yes, quitting is hard. And people have slips and relapses when they're trying to quit. That's not failure. That's normal! And that's why we're raising awareness about men switching to pouches to quit other products and then struggling to quit the pouches.

People who use nicotine are basically feeding a chemical dependence. If they switch from one product to another, they're not going to suddenly use less nicotine. Their bodies are used to getting a certain level of nicotine from smoking a cigarette or hitting a vape (which is a much higher concentration of nicotine). When they switch to nicotine pouches, they're going to use those pouches in the strength, quantity, and frequency needed to deliver the amount of nicotine their brains are demanding.

Get prepared

In the Men's Health article, each one of the guys had a different solution that worked for him. If you are thinking about quitting, it's important to get ready for it and figure out what works for you. It's a tough project. You wouldn't start any other tough project without preparing for it. Why should quitting nicotine be any different?

If you tried before, and it didn't work for you, please try again. Every time you try to quit, you learn something that will help you the next time. It is normal to try many times before you find what works for you.

The Mariposa County Tobacco Education Program has a resource guide for people who want to quit. You can also contact them with questions or to get more information, by emailing TobaccoEducation@MariposaCounty.gov or calling (209) 966-3689.

TEP_Resource-Guide-Quitting_c-3-3_2026.pdf

Download PDF • 240KB

Make a plan. Take a good look at when, how, why, and where you use nicotine. What your cravings are like and what triggers the craving. Who do you have around you who will support you in trying to quit? And honestly, who is going to get in your way?

Making an honest assessment of your resources and supports when developing your plan is critical. Make an appointment to talk to your doctor about it. About your NRT and medication options. Check out your insurance provider's website. In California, they're all required to provide support for quitting nicotine.

Visit the state quit line - Kick It California's website KickItCA.org. Call them at (800) 300-8086 or text "quit" to 66819. All of their services are free, and they've been providing them successfully for 30 years. They have free planning toolkits on their website, too.

For all of these reasons, we're drawing attention to the role of tobacco/nicotine product use in Mariposa County, and for Men's Health Month, the particular experiences of our local dads, brothers, husbands, sons, sweethearts, friends, neighbors, patients, customers, mentors, and students, who want to quit using tobacco/nicotine products.

This post was written by a Coalition member who based the "conversation" loosely on her real discussions.