How long nicotine can be traced in urine after long term use of nicorette gum?

28 Feb 2010

In the body Nicotine is metabolised to Cotinine.
The half Life of Cotinine is 15-20 hours.
The half life of nicotine is 1 - 3 hours.

This means that every 15 to 20 hours, half of the previous amount of Continine in the body disappears, or every 1 - 3 hours half of the previous amount of Nicotine in the body disappears.

Because cotinine has such a long half life, and it remains in the system for such a long time it is easy to test for its presence.

It takes roughly around 6 half lives for a drug to be completely eliminated ie 5 to 6 days.

This is just a guide only and is influenced by other factors such as age, general health, weight etc.