Plasma Nicotine Levels after Smoking Cigarettes with High, Medium, and Low Nicotine Yields

Abstract

Plasma nicotine three minutes after smoking a cigarette was measured in 10 sedentary workers in mid-morning and five hours later on four typical working days. The average mid-morning level after they had been smoking their usual cigarettes (mean nicotine yield 1. 34 mg) was 150.4 nmol/1 (24.4 ng/ml) (range 95.6–236.7 nmol/1 (15.5-38.4 ng/ml)). Despite great variation between smokers the mid-morning levels of each smoker were fairly consistent over the four mornings and correlated 0.82 with their carboxyhaemoglobin levels. After continuing to smoke their usual brand or switching to a high-nicotine brand (3.2 mg) average afternoon levels of 185.6 and 180.0 nmol/1 (30.1 and 29.2 ng/ml) respectively were not significantly higher than the morning levels, but after switching to low-nicotine cigarettes (0.14 mg) the plasma nicotine dropped to an average of 52.4 nmol/1 (8.5 ng/ml). The changes between morning and afternoon while smoking usual or high-nicotine cigarettes showed marked individual variation. The findings suggest that the plasma nicotine level just after a cigarette depends more on the way the cigarette is smoked than on its nicotine yield or the number which have been smoked over the preceding few hours. © 1975, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.