University of Tenn Institute of Agriculture

[greenmonster714]

Stumbled upon this and found many very informative articles for the inquiring mind. Who knew one could get GTS? Green Tobacco Sickness. Yeah, its a legit title. Something us small timers need to watch out for. What is it? Check out the safety section..lol. So much here I'll probably spend the next month reading just this site.

UT Institute of Agriculture

 

[Jitterbugdude]

There have been several people on here that have complained of green tobacco sickness. I've harvested many, many leaves and have never been subject to it. Perhaps it is an individual thing like some people can swim in poison ivy and never get the itch, others just look at it and break out it sores.

 

[BigBonner]

It takes a lot of tobacco to make you sick . It mostly happens when tobacco leaves are wet early in the morning and you get wet from that moisture . If you ware a plastic rain suit you won't have any problems . Handling 500 plant should be no problems either . It was only if I topped a couple of acres and got wet all over , absorbing the moisture . Showering after my morning topping and I have no problems .

 

[deluxestogie]

If you've ever smoked a cigar that was way too strong, then the symptoms are identical to green tobacco sickness.

In the sub-tropics, tobacco field workers do not wear long sleeves. Leaves that are wet from a recent rain are not a problem, since the rain rinses nicotine from the leaf surface. The nicotine is rapidly replaced (over a day or so) by the leaf's trichomes (those fine little "hairs"). Leaves wet from dew, however, still retain all their surface nicotine, but now in a solution of dew that can be rapidly absorbed through your bare arms. Palms of the hand are much slower to absorb it.

So, if you have to wade through leaves that are dripping with dew, just wash off afterwards. And, as Larry points out, a typical home grower is unlikely to have an exposure great enough to elicit symptoms. Be more careful if you have a heart condition.

Bob

 

[JessicaNicot]

Also, the more you smoke, I think the less likely you are to experience illness as your body becomes somewhat used to higher exposures of nicotine. I do not smoke at all and I've ended up sick several times after exposure doing various tasks. The best advice is either cover up (sleeves, gloves, etc) or wash often.

 

[JessicaNicot]

Also, those symptoms do not appear right away usually unless you've really overdone it. A morning exposure may not present itself until the early evening when you'll get a pounding headache and stomach issues...

 

[greenmonster714]

I got sick once from nicotine. Back when I Vaped. I had tapered off to 3mg juices. I loaded a dripper accidentally with 18mg. After about three big hits off the dripper I had a life changing experience. I got so sick I had to go to bed. Nausea, dizzy, awful awful feeling that lasted forwhat seemed an eternity. Needless to say that bottle went in the garbage.

I'd wondered about the leaves seeping nic. Nice to get some feedback on that considering I have a lot of tobacco to sucker this summer. Definitely going to use the rubber gloves and long sleeves. I do have pretty high nic tolerance but I'm not taking any chances. Thanks for the comments.