I ran across these articles this morning. Very interesting.
Nicotine High-Toxicity Myth Destroyed - Blog
Nicotine lethal dose in humans: a common argument by regulatory authorities, based on poor science
How much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century - Springer
Nicotine High-Toxicity Myth Destroyed - Blog
The ridiculous situation of nicotine being classified as more toxic than cyanide has persisted far too long, and is undoubtedly due to ideological pressure. That time is now over, because on 4th October 2013 a renowned toxicologist, Prof Bernd Mayer of Uo Graz, Austria, finally dispelled this long-standing myth. He investigated all aspects of the issue and concluded that the current LD50 amount (the dose expected to kill 50% of those who receive it) is at least 10 times and possibly 20 times too low. - See more at: Nicotine High-Toxicity Myth Destroyed - Blog
Nicotine lethal dose in humans: a common argument by regulatory authorities, based on poor science
Yesterday however, a very important review was published in Archives of Toxicology. Professor Bernd Mayer from the University of Gratz performed an extensive review of available literature in an effort to identify the existing proof for defining the nicotine lethal dose in humans. He has also found several references mentioning that the acute lethal dose in humans has been estimated to be 50-60mg. However, no proof was provided for such figures. He had to go back to the mid of the 19th century to find that the lethal dose came from self experiments of Austrian pharmacologists, who described really peculiar and unrealistic symptoms after ingesting just 1-4mg of nicotine. Therefore, reports based on dubious experiments and results 150 years ago are still reproduced today
Nicotine lethal dose in humans: a common argument by regulatory authorities, based on poor science
How much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century - Springer
The human toxicity of nicotine has become increasingly relevant in the past couple of years through marketing of new nicotine-containing products, such as smokeless tobacco and liquids for electronic nicotine delivery systems (electronic cigarettes) that are freely available in most countries. Standard textbooks, databases, and safety sheets consistently state that the lethal dose for adults is 60 mg or less (3060 mg), leading to safety warnings that ingestion of five cigarettes or 10 ml of a dilute nicotine-containing solution could kill an adult. The 60-mg dose would correspond to an oral LD50 of around 0.8 mg/kg, a dose that is considerably smaller than the values determined for laboratory animals, which are ranging from 3.3 (mice) to more than 50 mg/kg (rats) (Hayes 1982). How much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century - Springer