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Allergy to tobacco.

By itself, the plant "tobacco" in its fresh (green) form is not an allergen. But this plant of the nightshade family contains alkaloids in large doses - substances that are poisonous for a living organism.

There are several varieties of tobacco:

smoking tobacco,
snuff (dry snuff),
chewing tobacco (wet snuff).

In all three cases, dried tobacco leaves are used, but different drying technologies are used.

The basis of the active substance for which tobacco is used is nicotine. Nicotine is an alkaloid - an organic weakly acidic compound (poisonous), which has some properties for which it is used: it acts on nerve endings (irritates or inhibits neural connections), acts on blood vessels (narrows or expands the lumen of the vessel).

Nicotine is found in cigarette smoke, snuff powder, chewing tobacco powder and somehow enters the body. Nicotine is easily absorbed by all mucous membranes, due to which it enters the circulatory system and then spreads throughout the body.

What tobacco nicotine does:

Nicotine is able to change mood, since in the process of its chemical action it provokes the release of serotonin, norepinephrine, and the formation of endorphins.
Nicotine can affect cardiovascular activity, increasing heart contractions, causing tachycardia, arrhythmia, and increased blood pressure.
Being a substance of alkaline action, nicotine is able to lower the level of acidity of the gastrointestinal tract, and is also inclined, due to its irritating effect, to stimulate the work of the digestive glands of internal secretion.
The vasoconstrictor effect of nicotine affects the trophism of tissues and becomes the cause of excessive dryness of the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, nose, lung tissue, and skin.
Nicotine is able to have a stimulating effect on the work of the respiratory center.
The consequence of the use of nicotine can be neuromuscular disorders: convulsions, tremors.
An overdose of nicotine can cause visual impairment, hearing impairment and even disruption of the respiratory center, up to paralysis.

Like any other chemical, nicotine can cause individual intolerance, which is often reflected in the form of allergic manifestations.

Allergy to tobacco is nothing more than an allergy to the alkaloid nicotine, but often the local irritating effect of nicotine is taken for an allergic reaction: lacrimation when cigarette smoke gets into the eyes, runny nose and sneezing when nicotine irritates the receptors of the nasal cavity and capillaries of the nasal mucosa, coughing and sore throat due to irritation of the nerve endings of the respiratory tract and the mucous layer lining the respiratory tract and oral cavity.

A true allergic reaction to tobacco (i.e., an allergy to nicotine) can manifest as skin rashes, nausea, and vomiting. Most often, tobacco (nicotine) does not cause allergies, but poisoning if the doses of tobacco use exceed the permissible limits.

Tobacco poisoning is not uncommon, but more often chronic. Acute signs of tobacco nicotine poisoning are similar to poisoning with combustion products: vomiting (nausea with urge to vomit), increased salivation, swelling of the mucous membranes (including the lungs), diarrhea, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing.

Allergic reactions to tobacco, like tobacco poisoning, are treated by cessation of all forms of tobacco use.