How much nicotine?

[madox07]

Do any of you guys have any guess how much nicotine gets absorbed from smoking pipe in comparison, for say, to smoking a cigarette? I am guessing that comparing the amount of tobacco is not a fair measurement unit. Sure, if you unwrap a cigarette and compare it to the amount of tobacco that goes into a bowl, one would be tempted to say that the nicotine content is higher with the bowled pipe tobacco. While mathematically this may be true, I don't necessarily hold it valid. Your average cigarette has about 0.8 mg of nicotine content. That gets absorbed pretty quickly into your body through your lungs by means of inhaling and through the oral mucosa. While a bowl of pipe tobacco may contain twice as much nicotine (and this is a wild guess, as some pipe tobacco blends seems lighter in nicotine than your chemically treated cigarette tobacco) it gets absorbed at a slower pace, probably more oral exposure to the smoke makes a higher absorption than a cigarette, but no inhalation other than second hand smoking makes quite a difference. Also, empirically, given that I am not a cigarette smoker (or at least not any more), should I smoke one I get dizzy, which rarely happens from smoking my strongest nicotine pipe tobaccos. I guess that the rapid rate of nicotine absorption and its high content has this effect on my body. This is just a personal curiosity ... what do you guys think?

 

[jvnshr]

I found this one:

...Fourteen popular imported brands and nine popular domestic brands of cigarettes and three available brands of tobaccos were investigated for the amounts of nicotine content...The amount of nicotine in each cigarette was from 6.17 to 12.65 mg (1.23 ± 0.15 percent of tobacco weight in each cigarette) in domestic cigarettes. It was between 7.17-28.86 mg (1.80 ± 0.25 percent of tobacco weight in each cigarette) for imported cigarette, and between 30.08- 50.89 mg (3.82 ± 1.11 percent) for the pipe nicotine...

Article

Your average cigarette has about 0.8 mg of nicotine content. That gets absorbed pretty quickly into your body through your lungs by means of inhaling and through the oral mucosa.

Not sure about oral mucosa

Nicotine from the alkaline smoke of cigars is absorbed through the buccal mucosa, but such absorption from the more acidic smoke of American cigarettes has not been reported.

Article
Regarding the question of how much nicotine gets absorbed:



There are some studies about the absorption of cigar nicotine

 

[madox07]

So my understanding is that the rate of absorption is less accelerated in cigar smoking compared to cigarette smoking, IF not inhaled. Inhaling cigar (and pipe by analogy) is a total game changer as far as risk hazards. So am I right to say that pipe/cigar smoking is less dangerous for your health than cigarette smoking, with the caveat that one does not habitually inhale.

 

[jvnshr]

So am I right to say that pipe/cigar smoking is less dangerous for your health than cigarette smoking

There are some researches about that as well, but only few and I don't know how accurate they are. I guess nobody would like to spend money or time researching for less hazardous ways of consuming tobacco. Tobacco consumer of all types accepts the possible negative consequences of tobacco consuming in advance.
Personal experience:

Smoking pipes and cigars and not smoking cigarettes keeps my lungs clean at least.

 

[mso489]

Cigarettes are often inhaled. Only sidestream pipe smoke is inhaled; you inhale some, but don't do so intentionally. Tobaccos vary widely, even within one blend, in nic content. So I'd say pipes should deliver less nicotine, especially if you only sip. Retro-haling exposes nasal mucus tissues to smoke, so you get more, I'd guess, but not like smoking cigarettes and inhaling. With a pipe, you do get ingredients in your mouth and saliva, so you swallow that and it is absorbed by your digestive tract, nicotine and all.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

with more than 25 year of Cigarette,Cigarillo and Ryo Kentuckies behind me(yes can't deny still do enjoy some cigarettes in between, but much less what it was beforedays)I'had come to conclusion than after a medium bowl of mild-medioum pipe tobacco you would get amount of nicotine which equals roughly to (sic!)three med strong factory make cigarettes,(and here I do mean Usa Made cigarettes which contains more nic and tar and generally much better of a quality and taste versus any European produced equivalent)Moreover If anything makes me 'dizzy it is only strong pure matured virgina or strong Burleys smoked in large chambered pipe (Ain't inhaling remember that)but never it is cigarette nor is it cigar(excluding Partagas or Bolivar Havanas)that I got head spinning

 

[deathmetal]

Not enough, that's for sure.

 

[jefff]

I count on gum or lozenges for my nicotine fix.
The pipe is for pleasure.

 

[warren]

You're not grasping the problem with smoking, whether it's meat or tobacco. You're leaving out the carcinogenics from combustion. Nicotine is/may be addictive but, its the carcinogens that can be fatal. Nicotine would have to be ingested in a fairly large dose to be lethal.
Not inhaling reduces tars in the lungs, carcinogens are still absorbed into the body, forcing the immune system to focus on them and not, perhaps, on other issues they have been keeping under control more or less.

 

[jefff]

Oh, I am aware of that. But my circumstances don't allow me to smoke a pipe all day. As a former cigarette smoker the gum takes the edge off
It seems I don't want to live in a world without nicotine.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Jeff and Warren: You both can be more right here, Then their is that old american habit;chewing tobacco,I dont know if is still used widely out there ,but back in the days I'd imagine it was quite a popular in rural areas and with mining industry workers, perhaps I'm gonna give it a try some later, although, I've been reading it definitely does distroy teeth/Gum as it contains sugars,I still haveone oz this plug tobacco left(Salty Dogs by Dan)and if I'm not wrong plugs tobaccos can alternatively be used as chewing tobacco, but I have some doubts if this true or not.

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

People still dip out here. Used to work in a number of mills where there was no smoking, the floor was always covered in spit. So much so they put up completely ineffective "no spitting" signs.

 

[warren]

Never dipped, couldn't handle the tiny stuff. Red Man was ever popular on the flight line. I did and even now, though rarely, enjoy a chew.

 

[instymp]

People dip here all the time. And chew. I used to while mowing, now a cob.

 

[madox07]

In Texas chewing and dipping was really big, especially with the good old boys. There was this brand Copenhagen I remember in those days. I also remember reading something disturbing about it. Instead of raw tobacco, this brand used small paper like pouches filled with the tobacco that you put at the base of your gum, behind your lower lip, and allegedly the material out of which the pouches were made of contained tiny particles of fiberglass. This cut into the inner walls of your mouth allowing nicotine absorption at an alarming rate, which in turn made the user dip even more ... not sure if this was an urban legend type of article but it made sense.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Interesting to learn,and Madox07:these snuff pouches are and another snuff styles are very common still today, in Sweden, often in Finland and Denmark as well. Chewing tobaccohardly any more,but today they do sell these American brands in Germany,though twice a price what they cost in the U.S

Btw ,in the past been twice to Texasland ,southwest ares ,and I did love your great State,to a degree that had then ordered two pairs of Lucchese handmade boots in El Paso,as saying goes' Remember The Alamo'

 

[deathmetal]

@madox07
The same myth -- true or not -- was popular when I was in high school.
It never stopped anyone.
Personally I prefer the pipe for Nicotine... less of a peak, then falling off, but more of a consistent dose.
Better for getting stuff done.