Citation

Maina G, Castagnoli C, Passini V, Drosera M, Adami G, Mauro M, Filon FL. Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 2015; 74: 31-33.

Affiliation

Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Via della Pietà 19, 34129 Trieste, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.yrtph.2015.11.014

PMID

26619784

Abstract

The concentrated nicotine in e-cigarette refill liquids can be toxic if inadvertently ingested or absorbed through the skin. Reports of poisonings due to accidental ingestion of nicotine on refill liquids are rapidly increasing, while the evaluation of nicotine dermally absorbed still lacks. For that reason we studied transdermal nicotine absorption after the skin contamination with e-liquid. Donor chambers of eight Franz diffusion cells were filled with 1 mL of 0.8 mg/mL nicotine e-liquid for 24 hours. The concentration of nicotine in the receiving phase was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (LOD:0.1 μg/mL). Nicotine was detectable in receiving solution 2 hours after the start of exposure and increased progressively. The medium flux calculated was 4.82±1.05μg/cm(2)/h with a lag time of 3.9±0.1h. After 24h, the nicotine concentration in the receiving compartment was 101.02±22.35 μg/cm(2) corresponding to 3.04 mg of absorbed nicotine after contamination of a skin surface of 100 cm(2). Skin contamination with e-liquid can cause nicotine skin absorption: caution must be paid when handling refill e-liquids.

Language: en