[OT] Historical facts about Nicotine.

[JacktheRabbit]

Back in WW1 when the Germans, British, and French were throwing around chemical weapons there was of course similar research in the USA.

The US Military focused some of its research on the use of nicotine in a liquid aerosol form as a chemical weapon. Nicotine in high concentrations is quite deadly and can kill a target through skin contact, meaning it did not need to be inhaled.

The project was dropped because the weapon was found to be too effective. If liquid nicotine was sprayed onto a battlefield it would make that area deadly for decades afterward and there was no known way to clean it up or protect ones self from it.

 

[EricNoah]

Wow, that sounds really deadly. Do you happen to have a source for that info? I'm just curious, it kind of sounds like one of those urban legends.

 

[roytheodd]

Methinks this belongs in the Book of Vile Darkness.

 

[Zappo]

Freaky! Why don't they use that kind of stuff in anti-smoking campaigns?

Could you provide sources, though?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I dont have any specific info right here about the research into it as a weapon. Here is some general info about how deadly nicotine is though.

Nicotine, an organic natural product from Nicotiana sp., tobacco, is also a neurotoxin. It has been widely publicized in relation to smoking, chemical habituation and withdrawal. But, it is not widely recognized that nicotine has been used as a commercial insecticide for more than 75 years. Although it is approximately 1000 times less toxic than saxitoxin, it is still considered to be very hazardous to humans. Tobacco can contain up to about 10% nicotine by dry weight. Most college laboratory textbooks have removed experiments which involve nicotine, since nicotine is readily absorbed through the skin and is considered too toxic for instructional use. The Merck Index has the following cautionary information.

"Nicotine can be absorbed from the alimentary canal, the respiratory tract and intact skin. Percutaneous absorption of the free alkaloid is much more rapid than the acid salts. Local effects due to overexposure are burning sensation in mouth and throat, salivation, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. GI reactions are less severe but do occur after cutaneous and respiratory exposure. The major systemic effects are a transient stimulation and subsequent depression or paralysis of the CNS. Symptoms include agitation, headache, sweating, dizziness, auditory and visual disturbances, confusion, weakness and incoordination. At first respirations are deep and rapid, the blood pressure is high and the pulse is slow. CNS excitation may be evidenced by tremors or clonic-tonic convulsions. As depression develops, the pupils dilate, the blood pressure falls, and the pulse becomes rapid and irregular. Faintness, prostration, cyanosis and dyspnea progress to collapse. Death from paralysis of respiratory muscles usually follows shortly after collapse."

Would this statement be more powerful to a smoker than the caution that is printed on cigarette packages?

And yet, nicotine can be used therapeutically. It has offered a better treatment for Tourette's syndrome and has shown promise in treating other disorders of the brain. (C&EN, pp. 23-26, March 27, 2000)

http://ep.llnl.gov/msds/orgchem/Chem227/chem-risk/

 

[EricNoah]

I dont have any specific info right here about the research into it as a weapon. Here is some general info about how deadly nicotine is though.



http://ep.llnl.gov/msds/orgchem/Chem227/chem-risk/

Cool, thanks for the link.

 

[Grazzt]

Guess I should probably stop smoking perhaps.

Nah- might as well continue, that way in about 20 more years or so, I can turn around say I didn't know it was bad for me, sue RJ Reynolds or someone and win like $28 million dollars.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Don't think small! BILLIONS Baby!!!!

 

[BOZ]

Guess I should probably stop smoking perhaps.

Nah- might as well continue, that way in about 20 more years or so, I can turn around say I didn't know it was bad for me, sue RJ Reynolds or someone and win like $28 million dollars.

nah, that'll be passe by then. if you wanna get on that bandwagon, you gotta do it now while everyone else is doing it. (let's face it, no one's going to get millions of dollars from mcdonalds 20 years from now, saying they spilled hot coffee on their lap).


anyway, i have heard that nicotine in large amounts can be highly deadly, but i had not heard that it had been considered in chemical weapons research. doesn't surprise me though!

 

[Maerdwyn]

Nicotinics are a class of chemicals, some of which have been used in chemical weapons. Hemlock and Curare, for example, are nicotinics, as is, of course, nicotine. It is a class of chemicals, just as opioides would be a class of chemicals.

Nicotine itself hasn't been used in chemical weapons, as far as I'm aware, and wouldn't be a particularly effective one, compared with other members of the group.

Nicotine is still a toxin, and an addictive one, at that - it's just that you need a LOT more of it that other substances related to it to make it dangerous, dermally, by itself.

Edit: added the word "dermally" to clarify. Even internally, you need more nicotine than hemlock or curare, however.