r/science • u/informationtiger • Dec 18 '19

Chemistry Nicotine formula used by e-cigarette maker Juul is nearly identical to the flavor and addictive profile of Marlboro cigarettes

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-juul-ecigarettes-study-idUSKBN1YL26R
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u/thelizardkin Dec 18 '19

Yeah I thought although not great for you, that nicotine was far from the worst part about cigs.

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u/mcotter12 Dec 18 '19 edited Dec 18 '19

Yeah the article sort of glosses over it when they talk about cigarette companies adding chemicals to cigarettes, but those chemicals include rat poison and nail polish remover.. That said, pretty sure juul has trade secrets for their chemical composition

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u/thelizardkin Dec 18 '19

What do you mean by "nail polish remover" and "rat posion"? Because depending on the actual chemicals, that's a pretty meaningless phrase

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u/mcotter12 Dec 18 '19

Arsenic and acetone

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u/ObiWendigobi Dec 18 '19

You’re right that it isn’t the worst part of the cigarette but “not great for you” may be an understatement. Nicotine has an extremely low ld50. It used to be used as a very effective insecticide but was banned in the US as a pesticide because it was so dangerous to use.

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u/Nord_Star Dec 18 '19

LD50 is relatively low but not terribly far from caffeine, and LD50 in toxicology is not actually as useful as you might think. Acute toxicity doesn’t have much correlation with long term effects at low doses in general terms. Obviously this varies based on the chemical, as many factors such as metabolic rates, half-life and tissue deposition come into play. Nicotine has an elimination half-life in the body of only 2 hours and it’s active metabolite cotinine is only 16-18 hours.

Yeah you wouldn’t want to spill a jug of pure nicotine on your skin, but that’s not likely to happen to the average person. To suffer fatal levels of nicotine from vape juice you would essentially have to drink an entire bottle at once.

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u/ObiWendigobi Dec 18 '19

My mistake. Thanks for clarification.

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u/Yerx Dec 18 '19

Yes because you have to use high concentrations. I'd bet without looking it up that they still use nicotinamides. The problem is the addictiveness, if 2mg per kg from memory is the ld50, you would need to inject about 100mg to someone weaker than average. That is more than double an entire juul pod. Since people are talking about vodka, what do you think would happen to even the most seasoned drinker if he injected 2 bottles of vodka?

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u/pgm123 Dec 18 '19

Injecting that much alcohol would kill you. It would bypass the stomach and liver.

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u/TheHumanite Dec 18 '19

That's their point.

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u/Im_Currently_Pooping Dec 18 '19

Only if large amounts are absorbed or ingested. I don’t think there’s a way to OD on it if inhaled. There has been research that nicotine can actually help certain brain disorders like Alzheimer’s. IIRC.

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u/thelizardkin Dec 18 '19

LD50 is pretty much meaningless in terms of how dangerous something is after chronic use. For instance botulism toxin is the most toxic substance on earth in terms of LD50, with some varieties having an LD50 of 2 nanograms per kilogram. Yet it's commonly used in medical procedures, and is one of the safest medical chemicals in use.

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u/99PercentPotato Dec 18 '19

You dont know what you're talking about, honestly.