What are symptoms of nicotine poisoning?
Nic Sick is a term I recently learned about to describe a series of symptoms related to high levels of nicotine in the blood. Early symptoms include nausea or vomiting, stomachache and loss of appetite, increased heart rate and blood pressure, headache. mouth watering, dizziness or tremors, and confusion and anxiety. More information can be found on the American Lung Associations website here.
How much nicotine causes these symptoms?
According to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) a deadly amount of nicotine for a 150-lb person is 50-60mg. It is estimated that a smoker would absorb roughly 1mg of nicotine per cigarette. Based on these numbers, poisoning would occur at 2.5-3 packs of cigarettes, presumably over a very short period.
That’s a lot of chain smoking, which is why nicotine poisoning is so rare.
On the other hand, the amount of nicotine in an actual unlit cigarette or in nicotine liquid, if ingested, is much more. A toddler accidentally ingesting a cigarette or nicotine liquids could be very dangerous.
Are eCigarettes and vaping more likely to cause nicotine poisoning?
It looks that way. One reason is that the concentration in eCigarettes is often much higher than a traditional combustible cigarette. For perspective, one JUUL pod in the nicotine equivalent of a pack of cigarettes. Another reason is the greater opportunity to smoke electronic cigarettes in places where traditional cigarettes are banned. Electronic cigarettes also have no natural “finish” whereas smoking a cigarette does. Finally, teenagers who are not fully developed will have a lower threshold for poisoning because of their smaller frames. All of these factors, combined, lead to much higher exposure to nicotine and a higher risk of poisoning.
What is the prevalence of nicotine poisoning?
According to the American Association for Poison Control, instances of nicotine poisoning have gone from 1/month in 2010 to over 200/month now.
Alpha client suffers nicotine overdose
I remember first learning of the concept of nicotine poisoning as a client was describing his experience with Nicorette gum to help him quit smoking. He was telling me that he completely tuned out the pharmacist who was instructing him on the proper use of the popular cessation aid. He felt insulted by this instruction and felt he was competent enough to chew gum properly. That decision landed him in the emergency room with nicotine poisoning.
You see, nicotine gum isn’t chewed like an ordinary piece of gum. Instead, it is supposed to be chewed a few times and then “parked” between your lips and gums until another craving. But my client continued to chew piece after piece, apparently enough to require medical attention.
Dateline episode; murder by nicotine
The next time I remember hearing about nicotine poisoning was on an episode of Dateline NBC titled, Poison. The episode is no longer available on nbc.com, but I was able to find a good synopsis of the story of Linda Curry’s death by nicotine here.
More on nicotine poisoning
The Urban Dictionary describes Nic Sick here. You can read more about nicotine poisoning on WebMD and Wikipedia.
