4 ms·

Ive often wondered the same. I occasionally chew on some nicotine gum (usually 1mg, then an hour later another 1mg) as I find it helps me focus. I suspect its b

by r-s 13y ago

Ive often wondered the same. I occasionally chew on some nicotine gum (usually 1mg, then an hour later another 1mg) as I find it helps me focus. I suspect its better then smoking, but by how much seems fairly unknown.

MichaelGG 13y ago
How on earth could chewing gum be anywhere nearly as harmful as actually smoking tobacco-based products? Nicotine is as close to harmless as any effective medication. So the "by how much" is as large as possible.
- scott_karana 13y ago
  > Nicotine is as close to harmless as any effective medication Yes, the smoking is worse than the nicotine, but how many other over-the-counter medications have an LD50 potentially as low as 30mg/kg? That's insanely high toxicity. Spilling nicotine on yourself causes death. That should be sobering.
  - jasomill 13y ago
    So concentrated nicotine in liquid form is potentially dangerous and should be treated with caution. But how does the ratio of quantity ingested in the course of ordinary use to lethal dose compare to OTC meds?
  - hmsimha 13y ago
    An LD50 of 30 mg/kg means that for a roughly average 60-kg adult, a lethal dose would be 1.8 g of pure nicotine. Were you suggesting you would have to bring a vat of it to scalding temperatures and pour it over yourself to kill yourself with it?
    - hmsimha 13y ago
      Out of interest in the topic, I had to look into this further. It appears the current oral LD50 in humans for nicotine is assumed to be 6.5-13 mg/kg (perhaps even as low as 1 mg/kg in children). Nicotine is also said to be very readily absorbed through the skin. There is one[1] case I could find documented, from a 1933 publication of the British Medical Journal, of a patient nearly dying from spilling two 'drachms' (or roughly 1.5 tsp) of 95% nicotine on her arm. I'd say there's not enough information to be conclusive, but it's possible that nicotine could be lethal in doses absorbed through skin contact, though this seems unlikely to me given practical concentrations of nicotine solutions, and higher concentrations should be handled in a lab with proper safety equipment anyway. Ideally, pure nicotine would be labelled as the dangerous drug that it is, just as dangerous household cleaners are. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2368002/pdf/brmedj07321-0034d.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2368002/pdf/brme...
  - collyw 13y ago
    Driving also pollutes the air with carcinogens, and driving a a car into yourself also causes death. That should maybe put things back in perspective.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    Dunno, it seems telling when the argument of harm is "if you somehow get extra pure substance and ingest it way above medicinal levels, you might die". Spilling nicotine on yourself isn't really in the threat model of chewing nicotine gum at all.

by r-s 13y ago

MichaelGG 13y ago

How on earth could chewing gum be anywhere nearly as harmful as actually smoking tobacco-based products? Nicotine is as close to harmless as any effective medication. So the "by how much" is as large as possible.

scott_karana 13y ago
> Nicotine is as close to harmless as any effective medication Yes, the smoking is worse than the nicotine, but how many other over-the-counter medications have an LD50 potentially as low as 30mg/kg? That's insanely high toxicity. Spilling nicotine on yourself causes death. That should be sobering.
- jasomill 13y ago
  So concentrated nicotine in liquid form is potentially dangerous and should be treated with caution. But how does the ratio of quantity ingested in the course of ordinary use to lethal dose compare to OTC meds?
- hmsimha 13y ago
  An LD50 of 30 mg/kg means that for a roughly average 60-kg adult, a lethal dose would be 1.8 g of pure nicotine. Were you suggesting you would have to bring a vat of it to scalding temperatures and pour it over yourself to kill yourself with it?
  - hmsimha 13y ago
    Out of interest in the topic, I had to look into this further. It appears the current oral LD50 in humans for nicotine is assumed to be 6.5-13 mg/kg (perhaps even as low as 1 mg/kg in children). Nicotine is also said to be very readily absorbed through the skin. There is one[1] case I could find documented, from a 1933 publication of the British Medical Journal, of a patient nearly dying from spilling two 'drachms' (or roughly 1.5 tsp) of 95% nicotine on her arm. I'd say there's not enough information to be conclusive, but it's possible that nicotine could be lethal in doses absorbed through skin contact, though this seems unlikely to me given practical concentrations of nicotine solutions, and higher concentrations should be handled in a lab with proper safety equipment anyway. Ideally, pure nicotine would be labelled as the dangerous drug that it is, just as dangerous household cleaners are. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2368002/pdf/brmedj07321-0034d.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2368002/pdf/brme...
- collyw 13y ago
  Driving also pollutes the air with carcinogens, and driving a a car into yourself also causes death. That should maybe put things back in perspective.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  Dunno, it seems telling when the argument of harm is "if you somehow get extra pure substance and ingest it way above medicinal levels, you might die". Spilling nicotine on yourself isn't really in the threat model of chewing nicotine gum at all.