Question about Cigarettes and Drug Tests

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hey everyone,

I am a non smoker who has a pre-employment drug screen coming up 4 days from now. Yesterday I was at a friends house and took one puff of their cigarette, I had never tried them before and I wasnt thinking about this drug test coming up. Now I realized that the test may screen for nicotine and I am extremely worried that I will fail my test due to this. Is one puff enough to show up on a drug screen? I don't ever use tobacco or nicotine, this was a one time poor decision.

Thanks so much,

Nicky

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I honestly don't know whether or not it will show up in your drug test....we don't test for nicotine here.

I just can't believe that you, a legal adult, cannot take a single puff of a cigarette one time (which is a legal substance).

Maybe I will get flack for saying that....smoking is bad for you blah blah blah...but you are a non-smoker and took one puff and now have to worry about not getting a job? That's crazy.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I highly doubt they will be testing for cotinine. If they did, they would state this somewhere in the application process. Regardless, one puff four days prior would not show up.

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Specializes in Critical care.
I highly doubt they will be testing for cotinine. If they did, they would state this somewhere in the application process. Regardless, one puff four days prior would not show up.

The 2 major health systems that I've worked for both screen for nicotine use.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
The 2 major health systems that I've worked for both screen for nicotine use.

And I bet they notify people of that somewhere in their application process.

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I have never seen Nicotine testing as part of health employment screening. But I doubt it has the same staying power of Marijuana. It should be out of your system by now.

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The test requires a minimum level to show as positive. One puff several days prior would not meet that minimum. You could get the same level by being exposed to second hand smoke at an event.

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

We do test for nicotine use, however it just raises your health insurance premiums (our system is self-insured). There are other systems around here who will not hire anyone who uses tobacco products.

I doubt that one puff will be enough to make a test positive, but then again I am not very familiar with nicotine testing.

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