What’s Nicotine Poisoning?

All of us who have been regular users of nicotine products (in my case vaping nicotine), know about the effects of nicotine on our bodies. Many people say that nicotine relaxes them (despite being a stimulant) and helps them increase concentration. In addition, despite of the negative health effects of smoking, many smokers don’t want to quit the habit because of the nicotine withdrawal symptoms and other side effects such as weight gain. But, is it possible to get a nicotine overdose? What’s nicotine poisoning? Firstly, it’s very difficult to get a nicotine overdose by just smoking or vaping, as we absorb just 1/10 of the nicotine in a cigarette.     

Nicotine products must be stored and used with care, as it can be a danger to children or pets!

Nicotine Products

There are different ways to intake nicotine and some methods are safer than others. However, all nicotine products contain nicotine and therefore, they can produce nicotine withdrawal symptoms or even (albeit rare), nicotine poisoning.

In theory, if you smoke a cigarette that has a nicotine content of 12 mg, then you would absorb about 1 mg of nicotine. On the other hand, vaping takes a bit longer to absorb and usually you need to vape higher concentrations in order to get the same effects as a cigarette. In other words, you should choose E-liquids with higher nicotine concentrations (like 20 mg/ml) to feel the same effects as a cigarette.

What’s Nicotine Poisoning?

Nicotine poisoning is well known since many centuries. Tobacco harvesters know about nicotine poisoning and its effects. It’s called ‘Green Tobacco Sickness’ (GTS), which is a type of transdermal nicotine poisoning.

Green Tobacco Sickness is caused when nicotine is absorbed from the surface of wet tobacco leaves. In addition, this sickness is exacerbated if the tobacco leaves are harvested after rain or if the plants are wet with morning dew.

Symptoms of GTS are similar to any other nicotine poisoning and according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms are similar to heat illness and pesticide poisoning.  For example, harvesters may experience nausea, dizziness, headache or vomiting.

Green Tobacco Sickness could be easily preventable by avoiding harvesting tobacco in wet days or by wearing personal protective equipment.

There are other forms of nicotine poisoning. However, as previously mentioned, it’s very unlikely that someone can get nicotine poisoning by just smoking or vaping. Nonetheless, ingesting nicotine could be very dangerous and potentially lethal.

Although nicotine ingestion could be potentially fatal, there is not clear consensus on the lethal dose of nicotine. Many sources state that 60 mg of nicotine could kill an adult, which means the ingestion of five cigarettes. This means that nicotine has a LD₅₀ of 0.8 mg/kg which is similar to cyanide. However, there are many cases of people that survived high amounts of nicotine, even a case of a man that survived after the ingestion of 4 g of pure nicotine.

High doses of nicotine (both oral ingestion and intravenous) would cause just minor adverse effects such as coughing and nausea. In other words, nicotine poisoning is very unlikely that will lead to death.

How to Prevent Nicotine Poisoning?

Any nicotine products should be stored out of reach of children and pets. In addition, according to WebMD, it’s not recommended to induce vomit in people who had ingested or absorb toxic levels of nicotine.

Nicotine poisoning can happen if a person swallows nicotine liquid, nicotine in the eyes or nicotine spill on the skin. Furthermore, it’s not recommended to give antacids or induce vomit on the intoxicated person.  Instead, what is advisable is to give enough water to the person and they will start vomiting on their own.

If, on the contrary, nicotine is accidentally poured onto the skin, it is recommended to rinse with hot water for a period of about 15 minutes.

Finally, it’s important to dispose any nicotine items carefully, specially to avoid children or pets to get into contact with nicotine products.

In conclusion, nicotine poisoning is unlikely to happen. Nonetheless, if you experience nicotine poisoning, please follow these instructions.

What’s Nicotine Poisoning? was originally posted by E-Sigaret Nieuws