Does anyone know how long nicotine stays in your bloodstream?

Question

I need to apply for my own health insurance and stupidly smoked 5 or 6 cigarrettes this weekend while on a "wild night out". I don't want that to affect my rates.

I need to know if they check it on a blood test in a few weeks if it would come up. (I won't smoke again and this was this weekend.) I know, I'm probably being paranoid! A lab person with an insurance company should answer this one. ; )

Answer 1

Nicotine is a very unstable drug. When a person uses tobacco (whether in cigarettes or in skoal), the body immediately breaks nicotine down into about 97 different metabolites, the most stable of which is cotinine. Cotinine stays in a person's system for a period of 2 to 4 days.

There are a number of factors that can affect these figures, including:

• the strength of the tobacco
• the quantity you used
• the frequency of your use
• your individual tolerance
• the presence of other drugs

Factors specific to you which will also affect its elimination include:

• your tolerance
• your sex and age
• your overall health & well-being
• your general metabolic state

These variables all interact to make it hard to accurately define a time when the nicotine will be out of your system.

Answer 2

Tobacco use can be detected for up one year after you quit by use of an oral swab.Depends on usage.I am an insurance agent.Some companies will give you a chance a year after issue date to be retested and rerated non smoker if you quit.

Answer 3

You mean you're getting a physical? They don't normally check for nicotine. If you've told them you're a non-smoker, and they ask about any possible cigarette smell left on you, just tell them the truth.

Answer 4

8 years. You can reduce it to 6 if you exercise.

Answer 5

a couple of hours then you crave another one,
takes 3days after you had your last one to be out of your system.

Answer 6

from your last ingestion of it 72 hours unless you have renal or hepatic impairment