Ah nicotine, what nonsense is said about it!

Nicotine is regularly demonised, particularly by the general public. It is the victim of particularly tenacious prejudices and they do not date from today, the reasons for their existence are to be found decades ago. The most common method of ingesting nicotine until the 1980s was obviously through smoking or chewing products. As a result, everyone, including some doctors, had an unfortunate tendency to confuse tobacco and nicotine. Cigarettes give you cancer, there's nicotine in tobacco, so nicotine gives you cancer.

It was not until the advent of nicotine substitutes, such as gums and patches, that the discourse changed radically. Nicotine was no longer dangerous or even addictive when used via pharmaceuticals. Now that vape is developing, curiously, nicotine has once again become a harmful product that should be avoided as much as possible. Well, especially with vape and still not with conventional cessation products. However, it has not been shown that inhaling nicotine alone is likely to cause serious health effects.

On the contrary: recent studies have highlighted the benefits of nicotine, such as an American study published in 2014 which announced that nicotine would promote learning and concentration and would make it possible to fight against Parkinson's disease. In addition, nicotine could help combat depression, hyperactivity or OCD.

But if nicotine is not necessarily a high risk factor if it is inhaled, what about the risks in case of skin contact? In case of unfortunate ingestion? If children were to drink a vial, for example? And why does no one ask questions when you put a patch on your skin? It's also nicotine and a pure one at that! Whereas a 20 mg/ml liquid is a 2% dilution.

It was therefore quickly realized that nicotine is not so dangerous at usual doses. Of course, vapers must remain vigilant and not do anything, especially in the presence of children. However, there is reason to be relatively calm and not panic if a few millilitres of nicotine liquid are deposited on the skin.

Let's put an end to another idea put forward by some new vapers. Indeed, some of them are reluctant to take strong enough nicotine levels, which could however suit them to avoid nicotine overdose. Let's calm down. Nicotine overdose is not dangerous. When you overdose on nicotine, your body reacts immediately: you feel nauseous, you have a headache, you shake as if you were on a first date. If you are smart, you will adapt immediately by simply vaping less.

So, despite the prejudices, despite the ever-present "rumours", our knowledge of nicotine is increasing day by day and, finally, even if nicotine is perhaps not a commonplace product, it is far from being the demonic substance that some people take pleasure in describing.