Nicotine safety

[Kate]

Here are another couple of links that detail overdose experiences, one of them involving a hospital trip

Newb questions

Had to put on the brakes.

[ladykara]

I have noticed i have been feeling very slightly dizzy, i am using high 18mg PG, i have had to order low to put in another e cig and so i have one filled with high (use after dinner, morning ect) and another to use the rest of the time. I used to smoke up to 30 a day but someone pointed out i only ever used to smoke half a fag so maybe i didnt smoke as much as i thought, just lite up often.

[Kate]

Hi Kara. I use high (18mg) juice occasionally for a nicotine spike, I only use a couple of drops and then go back down to low. If I constantly vape high I get heartburn and palpitations.

As Scrubadub was saying earlier, it is very difficult to compare esmoking with smoking for nicotine absorption. The maths and science can only give a general idea, in the final analysis we are all different and we need to monitor our physical symptoms to determine a personal safe dose.

Start low and carefully increase dose if required. Get enough nicotine to satisfy your addiction but not so much that you increase tolerance.

[mouse]

I was just searching Google for info on nicotine toxicity, and I found a book called Poisoning & Drug Overdose By Kent R. Olson (page 277)- it's searchable on Google Books.

It says the average nicotine consumed in a single cigarette is between 10 - 15mg. Isn't this much higher than the estimates given in this thread?

I'm new so I can't post links but I'm pm'ing the link to Kate in the hope she can check it out. That's assuming I can post links in pm's...

[Kate]

Hi Mouse, welcome to the forum. I got your message with the link but unfortunately I can't view that page. It might be because I'm not a Google member and haven't logged in. If anyone else could check it out this is the link - Poisoning & Drug Overdose - Google Book Search

My guess is that this has something to do with the amount of nicotine in tobacco rather than the amount absorbed. Lots is burned off or lost through sidestream smoke. DC posted somewhere else that we only take in around 15% of the nicotine that is actually in a cigarette.

I don't know how it works. Packaging usually says around 0.5-1.2 mg per cig is absorbed but as Scrubadub pointed out earlier, that's unreliable because people don't smoke like machines. Sorry I can't help more with this.

Here is another link to a thread about nicotine overdose. This time it's someone who has overdosed on tobacco in the past (the first I've heard of) and is looking to swap to esmoking - Nicotine Question

[TropicalBob]

Don't be too concerned about the total amount of nicotine in a cigarette. You're interested in your intake from smoking. For a regular tobacco cig, it's about 1mg in 15 puffs per cig (and machines provide the only valid comparison; don't worry about how we smoke). For e-smoking, each puff provides roughly half the nicotine of a puff on a cigarette. Go from there.

If you e-smoke twice as much as you once smoked, you'll get the same nicotine in your blood stream. Take it up or down from there.

[Kate]

... that's what Ruyan say with 16mg juice.

[mouse]

Thanks Kate & TropicalBob, that clears things up a bit.

I thought the amount in the book sounded way too high, especially given that 60mg can kill an adult!

[scrubadub]

Don't be too concerned about the total amount of nicotine in a cigarette. You're interested in your intake from smoking. For a regular tobacco cig, it's about 1mg in 15 puffs per cig (and machines provide the only valid comparison; don't worry about how we smoke). For e-smoking, each puff provides roughly half the nicotine of a puff on a cigarette. Go from there.

If you e-smoke twice as much as you once smoked, you'll get the same nicotine in your blood stream. Take it up or down from there.

I have to disagree with you there TropicalBob I think how you smoke makes all the difference. I don't smoke e-cigs the same way I did fags certain brands I likely smoked differently to self medicate. Even Phillip Morris have admitted that the machine tests can't be used to accurately measure our nicotine intake:

'The FTC told smokers that "in looking at 'tar' and nicotine numbers, you need to know that the amount of 'tar' and nicotine you get will vary significantly depending on how you smoke the cigarettes." '

Understanding Tar & Nicotine Numbers - Philip Morris USA

[TropicalBob]

Since how a smoker smokes cannot be measured, only machine comparisons are valid. That's what I'm saying. And that's all. We all do indeed inhale differently, getting individual blood nicotine levels.

E-smoking researchers in New Zealand are using the same volume measurements used by Canada's cigarette smoking test machines. And that makes comparisons valid. See what I'm saying? I'm not saying we don't all smoke differently ... Your intake and my intake can't be compared; a Kool and a Kent and a Kissbox can be.