Nicotine
Summary
Persistence. Nicotine is degraded in the environment.
Bioaccumulation. Nicotine has low potential for bioaccumulation.
Toxicity. Nicotine has very high acute toxicity.
Risk. The use of nicotine (sales data Sweden 2016) has been considered to result in low environmental risk.
This summary information comes from fass.se and from previous environmental information for Nicotinell Peppermint, at that time from GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. Environmental information is currently lacking on fass.se for nicotine, including for Nicotinell Peppermint from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (2026-06-29).
Fass environmental information
Fass environmental information for Nicotinell Peppermint (nicotine) (downloaded 2018-07-12).
Excretion (metabolism)
Nicotine is mainly metabolized in the liver into less active metabolites, especially cotinine (which has a longer half-life). Both nicotine and cotinine undergo glucuronidation and are excreted in the urine. Excretion of unchanged nicotine depends on urinary pH. Nicotine has a half-life of about 2 hours.
Hazard
Persistence: "71% degradation in 28 days (OECD 301B). 72% degradation within 10 day window."
Bioaccumulation: Log Dow = 0.28 at pH 7.4 (OECD 107)
Acute toxicity: There are data for 3 trophic levels, lowest for crustacean (Daphnia pulex) 242 microg/L.
Risk
PEC/PNEC is based on sales data in Sweden in year 2016. PEC/PNEC = 0.70 which gives the risk low.
References
Author: Health and Medical Care Administration, Region Stockholm