How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System? [Tutorial]

There are some companies and federal and state employers that test their employees for nicotine. A nicotine test looks for cotinine in your blood, which is the predominant metabolite of nicotine. In addition, there are two types of nicotine tests: qualitative and quantitative test.

Reasons to take a Nicotine test

There are many reasons why a test to detect nicotine is requested. For example, a nicotine test is ordered for child custody cases, smoking cessation programs, insurance companies, before some types of surgery, to confirm or discard suspicions of a nicotine overdose or for employment.  

When a nicotine test is ordered, there are two types of test:

Quantitative test: this test looks for nicotine concentrations in your body.

Qualitative test: it’s a blood test that looks for nicotine and cotinine in your blood.

What’s cotinine?

Cotinine is a metabolite of nicotine, which means that it forms after nicotine enters your body. A nicotine test usually looks for cotinine because it stays in your body for a longer time than nicotine.  Cotinine is found in both tobacco and nicotine replacement therapies. A urine or a blood test will show cotinine in blood.  

How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System?

Nicotine has a short half-life (approximately 1 to 4 hours) while cotinine has a longer half-life (7 to 40 hours). In some occasions, other nicotine metabolites are tested such as anabasine. Anabasine, another tobacco metabolite, is present in tobacco but not in nicotine replacement products.

Normally, nicotine will leave your blood in 1 to 3 days while cotinine stays in your blood from 1 to 10 days.

There are other methods to detect cotinine. Generally, a saliva test is the most accurate to detect cotinine and it can be detected for up to 4 days.

Nicotine stays longer in people over 65 and in people who are regular smokers. Moreover, women usually process nicotine faster than men, especially if they are taking birth control pills.

A cigarette has on average about 12 mg of nicotine. Usually, about 1 mg of nicotine enter in our bloodstream.

Nicotine is measured in nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). A nonsmoker has less than 1 ng/ml levels while a regular smoker has levels higher than 10ng/ml with some cases even higher than 500 ng/ml.

Why Test for Nicotine?

Nicotine testing for employment is the most common reason for a nicotine test. In many occasions, it’s because insurance companies have higher rates for people who are smokers. Therefore, many companies request nicotine tests for their employees.

Sometimes, these policies might sound unfair, but it depends if companies request a test for cotinine or for anabasine (the metabolite that it’s not present in nicotine replacement therapies).

Basically, as previously mentioned, there are four methods for testing nicotine and its metabolites:

Blood: it’s a common method, but more expensive than a saliva or a urine test. It’s very accurate. However, cotinine will leave your blood after 1 to 3 days.

a blood test is a common test for nicotine.

Saliva: It is the most sensitive test of the three most common tests (urine, blood and saliva). In addition, it’s cheaper and easier to do as generally a swab is enough to take the sample.

a saliva test is a very sensitive test for nicotine.

Urine: urine test is better to detect cotinine as it is found in higher concentrations in urine.

Urine test is better to detect cotinine as it is found in higher concentrations in urine .

Hair: this is the most accurate test of all because cotinine can be found in hair for as long as three months. However, it’s much slower and more expensive than the other methods. Usually, it’s only used if tests are doubted or for medical or scientific studies.

Hair test is the most accurate one. However, it takes more time and it’s more expensive.

Conclusion: How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System?

Usually, cotinine will be detected for about 1 to 4 days. It’s very uncommon that an employer or insurance company requests hair tests for nicotine (with this test nicotine can be detected for up to three months).

Sometimes, a nicotine test is required for other purposes, such as child custody cases or smoking cessation programs.

Furthermore, nicotine levels vary from person to person, age, sex or if the person is a nonsmoker or a regular smoker.

Nicotine testing for employment is not common. However, there are some companies that request nicotine testing for employment.

How long does nicotine stay in your system? Remember that usually it stays in your system for approximately 1 to 4 days and sometimes a bit longer.

How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System? [Tutorial] was originally posted by E-Sigaret Nieuws