Nicotine Absorption: Cigarettes vs Pipes (Science Alert!)

[Bowie]

I fell down another internet rabbit hole and came out with some science for everyone. TL;DR: The pH of pipe smoke (specifically, air-cured tobacco) means more nicotine absorption through the mouth than via cigarette smoke (specifically, flue-cured tobacco).

Absorption of nicotine across biological membranes depends on pH. Nicotine is a weak base with a pKa of 8.0. In its ionized state, such as in acidic environments, nicotine does not rapidly cross membranes. The pH of smoke from flue-cured tobaccos, found in most cigarettes, is acidic (pH 5.5–6.0). At this pH, nicotine is primarily ionized. As a consequence, there is little buccal absorption of nicotine from flue-cured tobacco smoke, even when it is held in the mouth...Smoke from air-cured tobaccos, the predominant tobacco used in pipes, cigars, and some European cigarettes, is more alkaline (pH 6.5 or higher) and, considerable nicotine is unionized. Smoke from these products is well absorbed through the mouth...

Also:

Pipe smokers, particularly those who have previously smoked cigarettes, may have blood and urine levels of nicotine and cotinine as high as cigarette smokers...Primary pipe smokers who have not previously smoked cigarettes tend to have lower nicotine levels.

Overall, this study makes for some interesting reading. Link:

Nicotine Chemistry, Metabolism, Kinetics and Biomarkers - PMC

Nicotine underlies tobacco addiction, influences tobacco use patterns, and is used as a pharmacological aid to smoking cessation. The absorption, distribution and disposition characteristics of nicotine from tobacco and medicinal products are ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[unadoptedlamp]

Pipe smokers, particularly those who have previously smoked cigarettes, may have blood and urine levels of nicotine and cotinine as high as cigarette smokers.

That seems odd. I wonder if it is suggested this is a permanent thing - the odd part - what could be the mechanism for that?

Perhaps there is another reason, like former cigarette smokers still inhaling the pipe tobacco when those not previously smoking cigarettes being less inclined to inhale.

Lots of confounding factors in studies, which are difficult to control for. That is just one reason why independently supporting studies are so important.

 

[gatorlope]

Looked at some of your source material.
What I found especially interesting is that there is no mechanical substitute to measure nicotine absorption.
More or less related to that is the relative ineffectiveness of low tar, low nicotine tobaccos, because people just adjust their smoking habits to get the desired effect.

 

[Worknman]

Ive often wondered about actual nicotine absorption of pipes vs. cigarettes but its hard to make a comparison given the fact that the nicotine is absorbed differently in pipes than in cigarettes. I think the way its absorbed via cigarettes is way more addictive than pipes. The buccal absorption of pipes, even if its technically more nicotine, is released more slowly and evenly into the bloodstream.

I cant speak for everyone, but in my own experience and also what Ive heard from other light to moderate pipe smokers, nicotine cravings or withdrawals from stopping for several days or even weeks doesn't seem to be a big problem. Can't say that about light or moderate cigarette smokers.

 

[davek]

The PH of tobacco is a huge factor. An alkaline tobacco will absorb better period, whether it be mouth, lungs, whatever. It will also give more tongue bite or "catch" to your throat. Burley is very alkaline and thus is almost always mixed with a more acid tobacco or cased with a sugar since the sugar will make the smoke more acidic.

Read this one.

http://www.leffingwell.com/download/Leffingwell%20-%20Tobacco%20production%20chemistry%20and%20technology.pdf

 

[blackpowderpiper]

Ive often wondered about actual nicotine absorption of pipes vs. cigarettes but its hard to make a comparison given the fact that the nicotine is absorbed differently in pipes than in cigarettes. I think the way its absorbed via cigarettes is way more addictive than pipes. The buccal absorption of pipes, even if its technically more nicotine, is released more slowly and evenly into the bloodstream.

I cant speak for everyone, but in my own experience and also what Ive heard from other light to moderate pipe smokers, nicotine cravings or withdrawals from stopping for several days or even weeks doesn't seem to be a big problem. Can't say that about light or moderate cigarette smokers.

Merely anecdotal based on my own experiences, but I don't have the same nicotine cravings with a pipe as I did with cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. While I still need to get my daily nicotine, I can smoke a pipe in the morning with my coffee and be good to go for the vast majority of the day. With a cigarette, once finished, you may be reaching for another within an hour or so. This may be because with a pipe, my body has become acclimated to a lower dose of nicotine. Or it may be due to the different way that nicotine is absorbed into the body via a pipe.

As an RN, I have theorized that nicotine delivery may be related somewhat to the way that opiates are absorbed. I have noticed that a patient suffering with severe pain can receive an IV injection of an opiate and feel immediate relief, but due to the medication being metabolized quickly in the bloodstream, will often be in pain again relatively quickly. Conversely, pain medication given orally has a longer time to onset, but due to it being metabolized slower, seems to provide a much longer window of pain relief. Again, this is merely speculation on my part but this is the way it seems to work with me and my specific physiology.

At any rate, I don't feel like a slave to nicotine when smoking my pipes. Come evening time, I may be thinking to myself that I would really like to sit down and have a nice smoke, but it's not like I'm pulling my hair out and feeling like I have to have it right now. YMMV

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yes, when nicotine hits your lungs when smoking a cigarette or inhaling the pipesmoke, it’s a direct hit with (what I call) a lung feel.
As far as acidity and absorption, Mark Ryan hit on this in a speech/conversation we had a La Poche concerning perique. Perique doesnt have the same nicotine that regular tobacco has. Once fermented it is a more complex molecule of a different chemical nature that merely allows more of the surrounding tobacco to be absorbed. Virginias have as much nicotine as burley, but the acidity prevents it from being absorbed or felt. But, perique aids in more absorption of the Virginias in a VaPer blend.

As to pipes verses cigarettes, has anyone else read the insert in packs of Camels, where the courts have forced them to release the fact that cigarette companies were intentionally constructing new chemicals of the nicotine variety that was more addictive than natural nocotine. I’m not sure if it was every cigarette company as I just happened to be setting next to a Camel smoker when I read it.

 

[iajaffe]

As an aside. I can pass a nicotine urine test the day after smoking 5 bowls.

 

[Casual]

As an aside. I can pass a nicotine urine test the day after smoking 5 bowls.

That’s surprising, but there must be some reason that cigarette smokers report addiction much more often than pipe smokers. How did you find out? Insurance test?

When I quit cigarettes back around the turn of the millennium, I couldn’t go three hours without cravings. I’ve had only two bowls in the last month and feel no effects whatsoever. It must be metabolized differently somehow.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Cigarettes started by pipesmokers using a French paper to roll up some of the pipe tobacco because men started having less time to smoke a whole pipe.
But then as companies started rolling them commercially, they made a more controllable and consistent product by squeezing the juice out of the tobacco, remixing the juice with flavorings and secret ingredients and then rehydrating the cellulose of the leaf. I am certain that the reason cigarettes are more addictive is because they were designed that way to lure smokers to all take up their brand. Every cigarette smoker I new were addicted to a single brand and if they smoked another brand, they weren’t 100% satisfied. Hmm... I know that when I smoked cigarettes that it was powerful enough an addiction to get out of a warm bed on a cold rainy day and run to the store before I would smoke my roommates’s Vantage Greens.

 

[iajaffe]

I was curious after I had some friends tell me their company was going smoke free. I bought a pack of 20 tests on Amazon. I tested myself 24 hours after driving home from Chicago this year. I must have had at least 5 bowls on the drive to Texas. If not more. My only question is does nicotine stay in the blood or hair longer than urine. Not sure how a big corporation would test it's employees.

 

[olkofri]

?

 

[mso489]

As I've probably mentioned once too often, my dad smoked a pipe for fifty years from after breakfast to bedtime, with time out for meals. My mom liked cigarettes for drama, gesturing and all, but never bought a pack that didn't go stale mostly full. She just didn't ever crave nicotine. I enjoy a pipe, but so far, I can stop and start at will with no noticeable cravings or mood change related to nicotine. This suggests, purely anecdotally, that the susceptibility to nicotine, and probably to its long term effects, is highly individual.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I was curious after I had some friends tell me their company was going smoke free. I bought a pack of 20 tests on Amazon. I tested myself 24 hours after driving home from Chicago this year. I must have had at least 5 bowls on the drive to Texas. If not more. My only question is does nicotine stay in the blood or hair longer than urine. Not sure how a big corporation would test it's employees.

Big corporations tend to use the least expensive tests or testing services available. Some might not. It's a gamble. I am not even sure how accurate a nicotine test could be, especially if it is a mouth swab. If you've eaten, brushed your teeth, and had a full night sleep between your last pipe and the test,.. I'm sure the testing companies would tell you it's foolproof, but... I think a lot of it is based on just keeping their employees afraid.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Hmm I know that when I smoked cigarettes that it was powerful enough an addiction to get out of a warm bed on a cold rainy day and run to the store before I would smoke my roommates’s Vantage Greens.

That brings back memories from decades ago when my mom still smoked... Vantage Ultra Light 100s!

 

[olkofri]

Yes, when nicotine hits your lungs when smoking a cigarette or inhaling the pipesmoke, it’s a direct hit with (what I call) a lung feel.
As far as acidity and absorption, Mark Ryan hit on this in a speech/conversation we had a La Poche concerning perique. Perique doesnt have the same nicotine that regular tobacco has. Once fermented it is a more complex molecule of a different chemical nature that merely allows more of the surrounding tobacco to be absorbed. Virginias have as much nicotine as burley, but the acidity prevents it from being absorbed or felt. But, perique aids in more absorption of the Virginias in a VaPer blend.

As to pipes verses cigarettes, has anyone else read the insert in packs of Camels, where the courts have forced them to release the fact that cigarette companies were intentionally constructing new chemicals of the nicotine variety that was more addictive than natural nocotine. I’m not sure if it was every cigarette company as I just happened to be setting next to a Camel smoker when I read it.

Is that why nicotine seekers prefer burley blends? ?

As for the artificial chems, well, that's not good news for vapers. Who can tell what it is they're really taking in through their stylish, healthy because "it's NOT tobacco, man!", electronic devices?

 

[anotherbob]

Ive often wondered about actual nicotine absorption of pipes vs. cigarettes but its hard to make a comparison given the fact that the nicotine is absorbed differently in pipes than in cigarettes. I think the way its absorbed via cigarettes is way more addictive than pipes. The buccal absorption of pipes, even if its technically more nicotine, is released more slowly and evenly into the bloodstream.

I cant speak for everyone, but in my own experience and also what Ive heard from other light to moderate pipe smokers, nicotine cravings or withdrawals from stopping for several days or even weeks doesn't seem to be a big problem. Can't say that about light or moderate cigarette smokers.

You are correct. Absorption rates change how the body reacts to a change. Faster equals more addicting. In fact getting off hard drugs can be done by slowly tapering off but starting by splitting the dose into smaller doses taken a little bit apart from each other.

Merely anecdotal based on my own experiences, but I don't have the same nicotine cravings with a pipe as I did with cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. While I still need to get my daily nicotine, I can smoke a pipe in the morning with my coffee and be good to go for the vast majority of the day. With a cigarette, once finished, you may be reaching for another within an hour or so. This may be because with a pipe, my body has become acclimated to a lower dose of nicotine. Or it may be due to the different way that nicotine is absorbed into the body via a pipe.

As an RN, I have theorized that nicotine delivery may be related somewhat to the way that opiates are absorbed. I have noticed that a patient suffering with severe pain can receive an IV injection of an opiate and feel immediate relief, but due to the medication being metabolized quickly in the bloodstream, will often be in pain again relatively quickly. Conversely, pain medication given orally has a longer time to onset, but due to it being metabolized slower, seems to provide a much longer window of pain relief. Again, this is merely speculation on my part but this is the way it seems to work with me and my specific physiology.

At any rate, I don't feel like a slave to nicotine when smoking my pipes. Come evening time, I may be thinking to myself that I would really like to sit down and have a nice smoke, but it's not like I'm pulling my hair out and feeling like I have to have it right now. YMMV

it's the same. It's precisely the same.

 

[condorlover1]

The comment about European cigarettes is correct. Anyone here from the U.K who has smoked Capstan, Woodbines or Park Drive, Players or Plays Weights will know that the tobacco used in those unfiltered cigarettes packed one hell of a punch. Since the tobacco used was either Empire or Commonwealth grown you normally only inhaled the first few puffs otherwise you wound up with your head spinning. I have many fond memories of either rolling my own or smoking a Woodbine whilst at boarding school, especially the subterfuge of buying a pack of ten 'Woods' from the local village store. Strangely enough I have never had an addictive personality so I never really got hooked on cigarettes but they never seemed to hit the spot that smoking pipe manages. I too can go a for a few days without smoking and view my pipes as a source of relaxation in the evening.

 

[anotherbob]

Strangely enough I have never had an addictive personality so I never really got hooked on cigarettes but they never seemed to hit the spot that smoking pipe manages. I too can go a for a few days without smoking and view my pipes as a source of relaxation in the evening.

you don't have to be addicted to enjoy the benefits of nicotine. Reading neurologists discussing nicotine addiction is a very enlightening thing.

 

[shikano53]

From all the information I've read over the years, some posted here and linked to, other information I searched to satisfy my own curiosity has lead me to the conclusion that quote, laboratory studies and tests can be highly subjective and what governs the reported results are more or less the manipulation of the group doing the testing and what they want the results to say. In favor of or not in favor of.