 In tobacco smoke, nicotine can be found on the small particles of tar that the user breathes in. In the lungs the nicotine is absorbed quickly ... nicotine reaches the brain about 8 seconds after the smoke is inhaled. A smoker gets about 1 mg of nicotine in every cigarette. When tobacco is chewed, nicotine reaches the central nervous system in about 3-5 minutes. Nicotine acts on the nervous system. The immediate effects of nicotine include:
The cigarette is a very efficient drug delivery system. The average smoker takes in about 1 mg of nicotine per cigarette. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes; a person who smokes about 30 cigarettes daily gets 300 'hits' of nicotine to the brain each day. Immediately after each exposure to nicotine, the adrenal glands are stimulated to release adrenaline, which in turn stimulates the body and causes a sudden release of glucose, as well as an increase in blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. Nicotine, like other drugs, also increases levels of dopamine in the brain, causing feelings of pleasure or mild euphoria. Cigarette smoking kills hundreds of thousands of North Americans every year ... more than alcohol, cocaine and heroin, homicide, suicide, car accidents, fire, and AIDS put together! Cigarette smoking harms every organ in the body. It has been conclusively linked to leukemia, cataracts, and pneumonia, and is the cause of about one-third of all cancers. It is estimated that smoking accounts for approximately 21% of deaths from coronary heart disease each year. Cigarette smoking has been linked to about 90% of all lung cancer cases. Smoking (and chewing) is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, and bladder. Cigarette smoking has also been shown to lower a man's sperm count, and cause erectile difficulties. While tobacco smoke already contains about 4000 different chemicals, more than 100 chemicals are actually added to tobacco by the tobacco companies. These chemicals include benzaldehyde, butyric acid, decanoic acid, ethyl acetate, hexanoic acid, 3-methylbutyraldehyde, methylcyclopentenolone, and tolualdehydes. Tobacco companies have also been accused of attempting to manipulate nicotine levels in cigarettes and chewing tobacco to make them more addictive. Smoking also causes problems for pregnant women. There is no safe level of nicotine consumption for pregnant women. Repeated tobacco use during pregnancy results in children with learning problems.  Second hand smoke in the air in a room where someone has been smoking has been shown to be just as damaging to non-smokers as the cigarettes are to smokers. This means, for example, that if a parent smokes in the house or vehicle where kids are present, they are getting just as much bad stuff from the smoke that the parent is! Currently in North America, cigarette smoking is banned in many places. Cigarette smoking is more and more becoming socially unacceptable, just as spitting indoors used to be in the early 1900's. In addition, the price of cigarettes as of 2023 is about $0.75 per cigarette! All of these factors have caused cigarette usage to diminish considerably. But it's still a problem. In the United States as of 2022: Most Commonly Used Methods of Ingesting Nicotine (U.S.): In addition (U.S.): |