A paper from 2010 suggests that people who smoke five or fewer cigarettes a day may not have intense physical symptoms because their bodies are less dependent on nicotine. However, they may still have emotional ties to smoking.
How long does nicotine stay in your system?
The safety and long-term health effects of using e-cigarettes or other vaping products still aren’t well known. In September 2019, federal and state health authorities began investigating an outbreak of a severe lung disease associated with e-cigarettes and other vaping products . We’re closely monitoring the situation and will update our content as soon as more information is available.
When people use tobacco products, some of the nicotine stays in their system after they quit smoking. Medical tests can detect nicotine in people’s urine, blood, saliva, hair, and nails.
Nicotine is the addictive substance in tobacco, cigarettes, and vapes or e-cigarettes.
When someone smokes a cigarette, their body absorbs up to 90 percent of the nicotine. Traces of nicotine will linger long after individuals no longer feel the effects.
In this article, we look at how long it takes for the body to remove nicotine, and whether it is possible to get nicotine out of your system faster.
Two hours after ingesting nicotine, the body will have removed around half of the nicotine. This means that nicotine has a half-life of around 2 hours.
This short half-life means that the immediate effects of nicotine go away quickly, so people soon feel like they need another dose.
When nicotine enters the body, it is broken down into more than 20 different substances, including cotinine, anabasine, and nornicotine. People eventually excrete these by-products in their urine.
Doctors can use nicotine tests to measure levels of nicotine and its by-products in a person’s:
According to the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, it can take over 2 weeks for a person’s blood to reach the same cotinine levels as someone who does not use tobacco. It takes several more weeks for the urine levels to become very low.
Traces of nicotine may stay in the hair for longer, though people are rarely asked to do a hair test unless they are taking part in research.
The more someone smokes, and the higher the frequency of smoking, the longer nicotine takes to leave the body.
The exact length of time it takes for nicotine to clear differs between people :
- Nicotine may stay in the body for longer in adults aged over 65 years.
- Women tend to process nicotine more quickly than men, especially if they are taking birth control pills.
- The body will take longer to remove nicotine in people who have smoked more frequently and for longer.
The severity and timescale of physical withdrawal symptoms will vary, depending on how much an individual smokes.
A paper from 2010 suggests that people who smoke five or fewer cigarettes a day may not have intense physical symptoms because their bodies are less dependent on nicotine. However, they may still have emotional ties to smoking.
Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are at their worst a few days to a couple of weeks after smoking. The first week is usually the most difficult, and symptoms gradually reduce over the following few weeks.
The physical and psychological effects of nicotine withdrawal include:
- anxiety or stress
- irritability
- trouble sleeping
- depression
- restlessness
- difficulty focusing
- increased appetite
Once the physical symptoms are gone, and all nicotine has left a person’s body, they may still feel a psychological desire to smoke. Often, this is often because they are used to the habit of smoking.
The desire for nicotine may be worse in triggering situations. Examples of these may include times of stress or when having drinks with friends. Over time, these triggers become much less powerful.
Share on Pinterest Studies on inhaled nicotine levels from vapes are currently inconclusive.
Nicotine tests can also detect nicotine in the body when people have used an electronic cigarette or a vape.
Vaping is a relatively recent invention, and so little research has looked into its short- and long-term effects. Researchers do not yet know whether the body processes nicotine differently from cigarettes or vapes.
The current research has produced mixed results . Some studies say that vaping delivers less nicotine than cigarettes, while others say that the levels of cotinine and nicotine might be higher in people who use vapes.
Also, it is difficult to tell how much nicotine people inhale from vaping. This is because vape solutions contain different quantities of nicotine. Furthermore, labeling has shown inaccuracy with a -89 to 28 percent variance between the label and the actual nicotine content.
Researchers are continuing to study the following factors that may determine how much nicotine people ingest when using a vape or e-cigarette:
- The amount of nicotine in the vaping solution.
- The efficiency with which vaping devices deliver nicotine.
- Differences in how people use vaping devices, including frequency and length of inhalation.
Testing of people for nicotine is sometimes done for insurance or job-related reasons. Nicotine tests measure a person’s exposure to nicotine, and if they have been exposed, by how much. These tests look for traces of nicotine and other related substances, such as cotinine.
Cotinine is a more reliable measure of tobacco use because it stays in the body for much longer. The half-life of nicotine is 2 hours, while the half-life of cotinine is approximately 16 hours.
Testing can use the following different parts of the body for tissue samples:
The best way to pass a nicotine test is to avoid nicotine for up to 10 days before the test, as blood tests can still detect cotinine for 10 days.
There is no sure way to flush the body of nicotine quickly, but people may try maintaining a healthy lifestyle so that their body works efficiently.
The following methods may help clear nicotine from the body:
- Drink plenty of water to flush waste products from the kidneys and liver.
- Exercise to get the blood moving, boost circulation, and release waste products through sweat.
- Eat a healthful diet rich in antioxidants to help the body repair itself.
Some commercial products and herbal remedies claim to speed up the body’s ability to clear nicotine from the system, but regulators have not usually tested them scientifically.
The rate at which nicotine leaves the system is affected by:
- how much nicotine a person uses and how often
- how long a person has been using tobacco products
- the person’s overall health and age
It is not yet clear whether people who vape clear nicotine from their systems more rapidly than regular smokers.
Giving up nicotine can be difficult, but it is worth the challenge. The American Lung Association report that in 2015 there were 52.8 million former smokers, meaning these people no longer smoke. Hence, more people are enjoying the benefits of living a nicotine-free life every day.
Last medically reviewed on January 6, 2020
- Respiratory
- Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
- Smoking / Quit Smoking
How we reviewed this article:
Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.
- Benowitz, N. L. (2010, August 25). Nicotine addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(24), 2295–2303
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2928221/ - Benowitz, N. L., Hukkanen, J., & Jacob 3rd, P. (2010, October 13). Nicotine chemistry, metabolism, kinetics, and biomarkers. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, 2009(192), 29–60
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953858/ - Biomonitoring summary – Cotinine. (2016, December 27)
https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Cotinine_BiomonitoringSummary.html - Fagerström, K. (2014). Nicotine: Pharmacology, toxicity and therapeutic use. Journal of Smoking Cessation, 9(2), 53–59
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/15D8BBF6393C6093C2076546E6515457/S1834261214000279a.pdf/nicotine_pharmacology_toxicity_and_therapeutic_use.pdf - Health effects of smoking. (n.d.)
https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/health-effects-of-smoking.html - Nicotine and cotinine. (2018, June 22)
https://labtestsonline.org/tests/nicotine-and-cotinine - Nicotine distribution and excretion. (n.d.)
http://desalledesigns.com/cdesalle/Tobacco1/development/a_04_03_01.html - Palazzolo, D. L. (2013, November 18). Electronic cigarettes and vaping: A new challenge in clinical medicine and public health. A literature review. Frontiers in Public Health, 1(56)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3859972/ - Raja, M., Garg, A. Yadav, P., Jha, K., & Handa, S. (2016, March 1). Diagnostic methods for detection of cotinine level in tobacco users: A review. Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic Research, 10(3), ZE04–ZE06
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843405/ - Understanding withdrawal. (n.d.)
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How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System?
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The time nicotine stays in your system depends on how long and how often you’re exposed to it. It also depends on whether you smoked it, chewed it, or inhaled it second-hand.
Whenever you smoke or chew tobacco or inhale secondhand smoke from a cigarette, nicotine is absorbed into your bloodstream.
From there, enzymes in your liver break most of the nicotine down into cotinine. The amount of cotinine will increase with the amount of nicotine you ingest. These substances are eventually eliminated through your kidneys as urine.
Cotinine, nicotine’s main breakdown product, may be used to determine if someone was exposed to nicotine.
According to a 2016 review of literature , cotinine has high sensitivity and a longer half-life compared to other breakdown products of nicotine. Testing for it can usually differentiate people who smoke cigarettes from people who may have had indirect exposure.
How long it stays in your system will depend on how you ingested the nicotine and how frequently it is ingested.
Keep reading to learn how long nicotine can be detected in your urine, blood, saliva, and hair.
Q:
If I smoke one cigarette, how much nicotine will I ingest?
A:
1 milligram (mg) of nicotine per cigarette
Answers represent the opinions of our medical experts. All content is strictly informational and should not be considered medical advice.
Cotinine has a half-life of about 16 hours , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, it may be as long as 40 hours , according to a 2016 research review. A half-life refers to the number of hours before half of the cotinine will have left your system.
However, tests for this metabolite can detect cotinine even after it has reached this point.
Concentrations of cotinine in urine are about 4 to 6 times higher than in blood plasma or saliva.
A 2019 study used cotinine urine tests on people preparing for bariatric surgery to determine adherence to pre-surgery instructions. According to the study’s authors, the cotinine urine test provided high sensitivity and specificity for smoking in at least the previous 72 hours.
Another study from 2020 found that cotinine may still be detectable in urine for at least 8 weeks .
However, the way each person’s body metabolizes nicotine to create cotinine is different. Genetic differences can also affect the amount of time cotinine is detectable in your body.
According to research summarized by the CDC , non-Hispanic Black Americans may metabolize cotinine more slowly than non-Hispanic white Americans.
A positive urine test can depend on when you provide a urine sample relative to the last time you ingested nicotine. If you’re a current smoker, the test show urine cotinine levels of 1,000 to 8,000 ng/mL.
People who smoke but go 2 weeks without nicotine exposure before testing may show urine cotinine levels of less than 50 ng/mL.
Each lab may have different reference ranges for positivity, so it’s important to discuss the results with a doctor or technician.
People with heavy exposure to secondhand smoke may test at levels between 1 and 10 ng/mL .
Nicotine can be measured in your blood and saliva, but because cotinine has a longer half-life, testing for cotinine is typically preferred. According to 2016 research , the half-life of cotinine is the same whether tested for in your blood plasma, urine, or saliva.
However, all of these molecules have different cut-off points for detection. Some sources estimate that it may be detectable at least 3 days after exposure.
A 2012 review that looked at methods for assessing environmental exposure to cigarette smoke found that blood cotinine levels may reach their half-life in less than 1 day.
Saliva and blood have a lower concentration of cotinine than urine. The amount of cotinine in your saliva or blood may reach cut-off levels for detection sooner than testing using urine samples.
The exact length of time that cotinine is detectable in your blood may vary depending on your genetic makeup and the amount of nicotine that you were exposed to. Testing with blood may also be less sensitive than testing with urine. This could lead to false negatives or positives.
Nicotine in your blood can be detected using tests that are qualitative (whether or not nicotine is present) and quantitative (how much nicotine is present). These tests can detect nicotine, cotinine, and another breakdown product called anabasine.
Traces of nicotine can generally be found in your hair follicles for up to weeks, months, or even years after your last exposure, according to a 2021 review of literature . This can depend on the hair test administered as well as genetic factors.
But the authors of the review suggest that the results of hair testing may not correlate with blood testing. Hair testing may also show passive or environmental exposure to tobacco smoke.
Although hair testing is possible, it is not used as frequently as urine, saliva, or blood testing.
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