Measuring Nicotine Metabolites & Tobacco Alkaloids to Document Tobacco Use

 

Chemicals that can be measured:

(1) nicotine

(2) cotinine (a nicotine metabolite)

(3) nornicotine (a nicotine metabolite and tobacco alkaloid)

(4) anabasine (a tobacco alkaloid)

(5) anatabine (a tobacco alkaloid)

 

Nicotine has a short half-life in serum (less than 1 hour in a smoker, about 1.3 hours in a nonsmoker) so it may be absent after a few hours since the last use.

 

The other chemicals have longer serum half-lives (from 10 to 20 hours) so they can be detected for a longer period.

 

Testing for the alkaloids in urine allows for expanded detection.

Chemical	Mean Half-Life (Hours) in Urine	Range (Hours)
cotinine	19.5	10.2 to 37.5
nornicotine	11.6	6.4 to 26.6
anabasine	15.9	10.1 to 26.8
anatabine	9.6	5.8 to 15.4
nicotine	11.2	3.7 to 30.7

 

The presence of nicotine metabolites argues against passive exposure.

 

Anabasine and anatabine are not included in nicotine-replacement products, so their presence indicates continued tobacco use.

 

Hair testing can provide retrospective information but must be interpreted carefully.