Can I Pass Nicotine Blood Test After Quitting Smoking For 4.5 Days?
Hi... I have been a regular smoker for the past ten years. I recently was called and offered a position unexpectedly but in order to accept I have to pass a nicotine blood test. I have read many articles and understand about cotinine but wanted a real opinion. I was called about the position yesterday so I quit today. That leaves me 4 1/2 days until the test. Is it possible to pass?
tricky. It's right on the border. Cotinin has a 17 hr half life. That is about 6 half lives or 1/2 to the 6th power. Rather low. Generally it is urine and that's a bit of a longer period of time. There isn't a lot of storage of nicotine but there would certainly be a contribution of how much of a smoker one was at the time of quitting--which can easily vary over 10 fold. So... 1 cigarette a day with 6 half lives is pretty darn low. 40 cigs a day 20, 10, 5, 2.5, 1, 0.5 cigs, yeah that can probably be detected. So, 10 or less cigarettes a day is the fulcrum. Lower than that it likely is negative, higher than that all bets are off. The test can measure if you just had a cigarette and the equivalent at 4.5 days would be stopping 40 cigarettes a day at 4.5 days prior.
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Can I Pass Nicotine Blood Test After Quitting Smoking For 4.5 Days?
tricky. It s right on the border. Cotinin has a 17 hr half life. That is about 6 half lives or 1/2 to the 6th power. Rather low. Generally it is urine and that s a bit of a longer period of time. There isn t a lot of storage of nicotine but there would certainly be a contribution of how much of a smoker one was at the time of quitting--which can easily vary over 10 fold. So... 1 cigarette a day with 6 half lives is pretty darn low. 40 cigs a day 20, 10, 5, 2.5, 1, 0.5 cigs, yeah that can probably be detected. So, 10 or less cigarettes a day is the fulcrum. Lower than that it likely is negative, higher than that all bets are off. The test can measure if you just had a cigarette and the equivalent at 4.5 days would be stopping 40 cigarettes a day at 4.5 days prior.