Fiction mimicking Truth???

[PlateauGuy]

I read mysteries. Right now I'm in the middle of a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery where PW grabs a friends pipe and puts a pipe cleaner down it so that he can dirty Bunter's hands (ugh).

After doing so, PW states that his friend needs to clean his pipe or he'll die of nicotine poisoning.

I know that ingested nicotine will kill a person, but just how filthy does a pipe have to be before it's lethal,
or, is it even possible?

 

[Bub]

The CDC web site indicates that the human oral lethal dose of of nicotine is 60 mg
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/54115.html
Since the nicotine content and its bioavailabilty varies with the tobacco, its impossible to estimate the amount that could be found in a dirty pipe without more specific information.

 

[Anonymous]

There's also two types of nicotine. One can kill you by contact the other you put in your pipe.