Dangerous nicotine levels, strong snus could be fatal?

[Granitvit]

According to LD50 for nicotine for humans is 0.5-1.0mg per kilo. So say you weigh 100 kilos, you cannot handle 50-100 mg (lets use 100 mg).

According to Swedish Match's website, the body absorbs 10-20% of the nicotine in snus.

So if doing Odens Extreme Loose, at 22mg/g, the body takes up 2-4mg for each snus, if the size is 1 gram. Therefore, you only need 25g snus to reach the 100 mg fatal level. So you die if you take half a can at once?

Is this too hypothetical or theoretical, or could this be true? I rarely take small pinches, probably 2-3g each time, but no idea really. Seems as though we are dangerously close??

However, the traditional 8mg / g in for example Ettan lös, translates into that it is enough to do 1,5 cans at once in order to "overdose", since it is about three times weaker than Odens Extreme.

Any comments? Or anyone who knows the score?

[internope]

According to LD50 for nicotine for humans is 0.5-1.0mg per kilo. So say you weigh 100 kilos, you cannot handle 50-100 mg (lets use 100 mg).

According to Swedish Match's website, the body absorbs 10-20% of the nicotine in snus.

So if doing Odens Extreme Loose, at 22mg/g, the body takes up 2-4mg for each snus, if the size is 1 gram. Therefore, you only need 25g snus to reach the 100 mg fatal level. So you die if you take half a can at once?

Is this too hypothetical or theoretical, or could this be true? I rarely take small pinches, probably 2-3g each time, but no idea really. Seems as though we are dangerously close??

However, the traditional 8mg / g in for example Ettan lös, translates into that it is enough to do 1,5 cans at once in order to "overdose", since it is about three times weaker than Odens Extreme.

Any comments? Or anyone who knows the score?

I think that you would have to work very hard at it to absorb enough nicotine from snus to die, especially since you already are hooked hard enough to tolerate 2-3g pinches of strong snus. If you were stuffing insane amounts of snus in to your mouth you would likely become dizzy and throw up before you were able to get enough in your system to die.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

Sixty milligrams of nicotine (the amount in about 30-40 cigarettes [1]), has the potential to kill an adult who is not a smoker[2] if all of the nicotine were absorbed. This figure is ~120 mg in chronic cigarette smokers, smoking an average of 20 non-light cigarettes delivering ~1.7 mg of nicotine each daily. One cigarette's-worth of nicotine is enough to make a toddler severely ill. In some cases children have become poisoned by topical medicinal creams which contain nicotine.

And:

The LD50 of nicotine is 50 mg/kg for rats and 3 mg/kg for mice. 0.5-1.0 mg/kg can be a lethal dosage for adult humans, and 10 mg for children[2][4]. Nicotine therefore has a high toxicity in comparison to many other alkaloids such as cocaine, which in mice has an LD50 of 95.1 mg/kg. A person can overdose on nicotine through a combination of nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and/or tobacco smoking at the same time. [5][6] Spilling an extremely high concentration of nicotine onto the skin can result in intoxication or even death since nicotine readily passes into the bloodstream from dermal contact.[7]

I bolded the LD for children above because the risk to children is very real. Little kids manage to do some crazy things and if a toddler were to swallow a portion or two the consequences could be disastrous.

[Snusdog]

I think that you would have to work very hard at it to absorb enough nicotine from snus to die, especially since you already are hooked hard enough to tolerate 2-3g pinches of strong snus. If you were stuffing insane amounts of snus in to your mouth you would likely become dizzy and throw up before you were able to get enough in your system to die.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

Sixty milligrams of nicotine (the amount in about 30-40 cigarettes [1]), has the potential to kill an adult who is not a smoker[2] if all of the nicotine were absorbed. This figure is ~120 mg in chronic cigarette smokers, smoking an average of 20 non-light cigarettes delivering ~1.7 mg of nicotine each daily. One cigarette's-worth of nicotine is enough to make a toddler severely ill. In some cases children have become poisoned by topical medicinal creams which contain nicotine.

And:

The LD50 of nicotine is 50 mg/kg for rats and 3 mg/kg for mice. 0.5-1.0 mg/kg can be a lethal dosage for adult humans, and 10 mg for children[2][4]. Nicotine therefore has a high toxicity in comparison to many other alkaloids such as cocaine, which in mice has an LD50 of 95.1 mg/kg. A person can overdose on nicotine through a combination of nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and/or tobacco smoking at the same time. [5][6] Spilling an extremely high concentration of nicotine onto the skin can result in intoxication or even death since nicotine readily passes into the bloodstream from dermal contact.[7]

I bolded the LD for children above because the risk to children is very real. Little kids manage to do some crazy things and if a toddler were to swallow a portion or two the consequences could be disastrous.

Nice find Internope

I think you are right............I remember watching a news bit about tobacco pickers getting tobacco poison from handling so many leaves (not sure how that worked since the leaves were not cured and there was no Ph added)

Anyway............ my point is they got sick before they had a chance to die..............I think you would have to work at ODing on tobacco...............I imagine even the portion eating toddler would get sick and throw up before ultimate toxicity was reached...................However, this in no way should lessen our vigilance in keeping our kids safe.......your point there is well taken

[Granitvit]

I think that you would have to work very hard at it to absorb enough nicotine from snus to die, especially since you already are hooked hard enough to tolerate 2-3g pinches of strong snus. If you were stuffing insane amounts of snus in to your mouth you would likely become dizzy and throw up before you were able to get enough in your system to die.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

Sixty milligrams of nicotine (the amount in about 30-40 cigarettes [1]), has the potential to kill an adult who is not a smoker[2] if all of the nicotine were absorbed. This figure is ~120 mg in chronic cigarette smokers, smoking an average of 20 non-light cigarettes delivering ~1.7 mg of nicotine each daily. One cigarette's-worth of nicotine is enough to make a toddler severely ill. In some cases children have become poisoned by topical medicinal creams which contain nicotine.

And:

The LD50 of nicotine is 50 mg/kg for rats and 3 mg/kg for mice. 0.5-1.0 mg/kg can be a lethal dosage for adult humans, and 10 mg for children[2][4]. Nicotine therefore has a high toxicity in comparison to many other alkaloids such as cocaine, which in mice has an LD50 of 95.1 mg/kg. A person can overdose on nicotine through a combination of nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and/or tobacco smoking at the same time. [5][6] Spilling an extremely high concentration of nicotine onto the skin can result in intoxication or even death since nicotine readily passes into the bloodstream from dermal contact.[7]

I bolded the LD for children above because the risk to children is very real. Little kids manage to do some crazy things and if a toddler were to swallow a portion or two the consequences could be disastrous.

My thought exactly. You are likely to pass out before it hits you with all its might. Also your point on whether one has built up a tolerance or not is of course important.

Nevertheless, I am still surprised that we are that close to using a dose that could be lethal. As a teenager, I stuffed 29 portions in my mouth, just to see what happened (and to show off, I guess)... If 1,5 cans is lethal, then this is dangerously close. (Not saying it's common or wise to do such a thing, just mean it's doable).

A wild guess would have been to extract nicotine out of 40 boxes or so, and inject with a needle, for it to kill you. Did not expect it to be 1,5 cans.

[Mdisch]

Your body would stop absorbind it at that point, you would puke and pass out first - It is very unlikely that this would happen with snus. Nicotine patches are the only way that could give you those levels without your body stopping it however it could. Also most of us are pretty damn resistant :-)
You could of course also shoot liquid nicotine into your veins with a syringe but you'd have to be a special kind of clinically insane to do that.

So do not worry. If you haven't even experienced enough nicotine poisioning to puke you're definately safe!

[PipenSnus]

Does anybody remember the television show "Picket Fences"? In the very first episode, the lead characters (a small-town sheriff, and his wife, the town doctor), had to solve a murder mystery. The victim was killed with an injection of liquid nicotine. But I think that's about the only way you could have a fatal nicotine OD.

[Xobeloot]

Where is that story about the moron who tried to kill himself by nicotine overdose by stuffing several cans worth up his ass. Even that didnt prove fatal.

[jagmanss]

Where is that story about the moron who tried to kill himself by nicotine overdose by stuffing several cans worth up his ass. Even that didnt prove fatal.

Here ya go, Found that for ya....


http://smokles.wordpress.com/2010/09...f-moist-snuff/

[WickedKitchen]

That would be a terrible way to go. Your body would reject it, but like in a hostage situation...if they shoved x amount of cans in your mouth/throat and duct taped the shit out of you...terrible.

Outside of the burning sensation from any part of your body in contact with the tobacco I wouldn't think the death from overdose of nicotine would be at all painful. You'd have to bypass the mouth to be able to tolerate the time it would take to absorb enough to kill you and get it into the stomach or intestines...and perhaps the colon. I think my body would naturally try to expel it but I don't know. Duct tape...ugh. One could more easily kill themselves with alcohol than snus I'd say. We're not coming close at all.

[Frosted]

My thoughts are in no way scientific.

When snussing, the nicotine is absorbed slowly and when you take the snus out the nicotine, for me decreases rapidly.

When smoking a cigarette, nicotine is absorbed extremely rapidly and I get a nicotine 'hit' - unlike snus, giving a different physical reaction to the nicotine. The nicotine decreases rapidly.

So, going from this experience, it seems to me that it's to do with the rapidity of nicotine absorption. I feel that you would need all those mg for a fatal dose to be delivered at once.

My conclusion from this is that nicotine would need to be injected to be fatal.

Any thoughts?

Odens Extreme at 22mg is fairly slow release. Odens Extra Stark is quick release at 17mg.

[Lulie]

Surely if there was any chance of someone overdosing by stuffing a whole can's contents in their mouth, there'd be some kind of warning on the can? With all the laws and companies covering their own arses these days I am surprised there isn't..

[Snusify]

Before you got anywhere near a fatal does of nicotine from Snus you would be violently sick. You could not ingest enough. The only way to get that fatal dose would be to have concentrated nicotine mainlined into your veins.

[thatguyjeff]

One thing is for sure - nicotine is toxic. Get enough of it in you and it can kill you. Same is true with pretty much any drug out there. The only exception I can think of off the top is THC (the drug in mary-jane).

When I used to vape (e-smoke), I recall reading warnings from folks who drip or refill their own cartridges with "juice." The juice is the nicotine liquid sold in bottles and many e-smokers buy the juice and refill their own carts to save money. The warning was to be careful when handling the liquid as it's a high nicotine concentration and the nicotine can be absorbed through the skin.

I also recall hearing a story about someone in Japan who died of a nicotine overdose while smoking. Could be an urban myth too, I dunno. The story went something like these 2 Japanese factory workers were on a break and having a smoking contest to see who could chain smoke the most cigs in a row as fast as they could. One guy didn't make it past 50 or something, but the other guy made it all the way to 100 and fell over dead. Like I said, maybe it's an urban legend. But I heard something like that somewhere.

[Joe234]

Nice find Internope

I think you are right............I remember watching a news bit about tobacco pickers getting tobacco poison from handling so many leaves (not sure how that worked since the leaves were not cured and there was no Ph added)

Right Snusdog. It's called Green Sickness.


Green Tobacco Sickness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Tobacco_Sickness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) is a type of nicotine poisoning caused by the dermal absorption of nicotine from the surface of wet tobacco plants.[1] Tobacco harvesters, whose clothing becomes saturated from tobacco wet with rain or morning dew, are at high risk of developing GTS. Workers can avoid getting this sickness by waiting to harvest until the tobacco leaves are dry, or by wearing a rain suit. Wet clothing that has come in contact with tobacco leaves should be removed immediately and the skin washed with warm soapy water.

Use of tobacco products such as cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, appears to reduce the risk of GTS due to the body adapting to the intake of nicotine. See nicotine poisoning for the difference in the lethal dose of nicotine between a non-smoker and a smoker.

Symptoms of GTS include nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and severe weakness.[1] These symptoms may be accompanied by fluctuations in blood pressure or heart rate. Abdominal cramping, chills, increased sweating, salivation and difficulty breathing are also common.[1] The illness will resolve on its own within one to two days, but symptoms may be so severe as to require emergency medical treatment.

In the United States, where tobacco is increasingly being farmed on large farms, seasonal or migrant farmworkers are disproportionately affected by this condition. Worldwide there are an estimated 33 million tobacco farm workers, with a substantial proportion living in developing countries. A recent international review reported that between 8-89% of tobacco harvesters may be affected in the course of a season (this wide variation probably being due to differences between study methodologies as well as a range of working conditions). The long-term health outcomes for individuals exposed to nicotine transdermally for extended periods of time are not known.[2]

[sooperdrave]

Before you got anywhere near a fatal does of nicotine from Snus you would be violently sick. You could not ingest enough. The only way to get that fatal dose would be to have concentrated nicotine mainlined into your veins.

this!!!!!


ive known a few people that have spilled 100mg nic liquid (e-liquid for making liquid to vape) on their hands, and it gave them a headache, so i think it would take quite a lot of snus to be a problem.