Most tobacco and vaping products contain nicotine, a harmful substance that causes smoking addiction. What many people still don’t know is that traces of nicotine can stay for quite a while in a consumer’s system, even after they’ve stopped smoking and/or vaping. The interesting part is that said substance can be detected in a consumer’s:

  • Blood
  • Saliva
  • Urine
  • Hair
  • Nails

So, regardless of whether your nicotine intake comes from smoking regular cigars and cigarettes or from vaping devices and e-cigarettes, if the tobacco and the e-liquid you are using contain nicotine, your body will absorb and process this substance nonetheless.

How Long Does Nicotine Stay in Your System?

Once you’re done with your cigarette or your vaping session, your body ends up absorbing 90% of the nicotine you’ve just consumed, which means it simply cannot get rid of this substance too easily. Even when your body completely stops feeling the effects of nicotine, the traces of this substance will linger within your body much longer.

In fact, your body is able to remove only about 50% of the ingested nicotine within two hours after your smoking session, while getting rid of the rest of the nicotine may take up to several days.

This makes for the tricky part, actually.

This short-term half-life that nicotine features is responsible for the substance’s high addiction levels, as its immediate effects tend to subside rather quickly, making the person with the nicotine addiction in need of another dose soon after.

Cotinine as the Silent Perpetrator

Even worse than nicotine is the substance called cotinine. When nicotine is absorbed by the human body, it is then broken down even further into circa 20 other by-products including:

These substances eventually leave our body through urine. However, high levels of cotinine are able to remain present in a smoker’s blood up to 2 weeks after the person has quit smoking, according to the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.

Of course, the more a person smokes (this refers to both the duration and frequency of smoking), the longer it will take for nicotine and cotinine to completely leave the body. Also, the approximate time period for nicotine to be completely excreted from one’s system tends to differ, and the factors include:

  • duration and frequency of smoking
  • age (nicotine is excreted slower in persons older than 65)
  • gender (it has been proven that women process nicotine more quickly than the opposite sex)

Nicotine Inhaled via Vaping

Nicotine Inhaled via Smoking vs. Nicotine Inhaled via Vaping

People who only use e-cigarettes may be asking: how long does nicotine stay in your system from vaping? And, are there any differences between smoking traditional tobacco products and using vaping devices?

The truth is that both types of nicotine intake leave traces of this substance in your body, but the difference is still somewhat vague. As vaping is still a relatively new trend, there haven’t been many consistent study results regarding both short-term and long-term effects, which is why it is not yet clear whether our body processes nicotine differently when inhaled via vaping products.

However, scientists all over the globe continue to conduct researches that test which factors are the most crucial ones when it comes to nicotine addiction and its traces in the human body. Some of the vital factors include:

  • nicotine levels in vaping liquids
  • the efficiency rate of vaping devices and their nicotine delivery
  • different ways consumers use e-cigarettes and vaping devices (how frequency and inhalation length factor fit into the equation)

What do you think? How long does nicotine stay in your system from vaping? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below or visit our tobacco shop in Fort Lauderdale.