Warning..Nicotine patches and sun!

pulliptears

A few months ago I decided to stop smoking and started using round nicotine patches. After a week or two I moved onto the clear square ones because they were cheaper in Boots I used them all in all for around 6 weeks before I once again caved to the demon cigarettes...

Last weekend I was at a festival and it was hot. Being sensible I covered myself in factor 50 because I knew I would be sat in the sun watching bands all day.

By the Saturday evening, despite constantly applying sun cream the tops of my arms were very sore, and by the Sunday evening I was amazed to see 2 clear patches of burns on my right arm. I had no idea how I had burnt there given the amount of cream I had used and yet I had not burnt anywhere else, and stranger still was the perfectly circular burn further down my arm.

It occurred to me yesterday that the position of the burns is the same as the places I applied my nicotine patches, and after looking at the patches this morning the circular burn is exactly the same size as the patch. You can also make out the edges of the square patches at the tops of my shoulder.

Whether this is just my skin that has been affected by this I dont know, but it is worth noting if you wear or have worn patches recently please make sure the areas they were are sheilded from sunlight. My arm is still very painful as you can see from this photo:



I hope this prevents someone else from having very sore arms

maninthestreet

Does nicotine neutralise the protection afforded by sun cream?

Wench

Ouchies !

Thankyou I'll pass the info onto me mam, she's a patch user too

pulliptears

maninthestreet wrote: »

Does nicotine neutralise the protection afforded by sun cream?

I don't know to be honest. Had I still been using the patches I think I would have probably looked more into the instructions on the box, but having not worn a patch for probably 2 months its not something I would have considered happening.

peachyprice

OMG :eek:

I wonder if the patches have made your skin thinner?

pulliptears

peachyprice wrote: »

OMG :eek:

I wonder if the patches have made your skin thinner?

I don't know, and in truth I noticed some discolouration where the patches had been a few weeks back, like a lighter area of my skin. This never occurred to me though that it may make the skin less resistant to sun.

That photo was taken this morning, so its now had 3 days to heal somewhat, I cant begin to explain how raw and red it was on Sunday evening and I really wish I had taken a photo then but I was so shattered I just went to bed.

maninthestreet

So were you wearing the patches at the weekend or not?

pulliptears

maninthestreet wrote: »

So were you wearing the patches at the weekend or not?

As I said in post 4, No, I have not worn any patches for roughly 8 weeks.

angle

pulliptears wrote: »

As I said in post 4, No, I have not worn any patches for roughly 8 weeks.

Crikey I'm shocked.

I think you need to check the instructions and if they don't even vaguely mention that there might be issues about being in the sun after using the patches then I would contact the manufacturers.

Those look like quite severe burns - imagine if you were abroad or in the sun for longer or still wearing the patches.

Hope your arm recovers soon.

pulliptears

angle wrote: »

Crikey I'm shocked.

I think you need to check the instructions and if they don't even vaguely mention that there might be issues about being in the sun after using the patches then I would contact the manufacturers.

Those look like quite severe burns - imagine if you were abroad or in the sun for longer or still wearing the patches.

Hope your arm recovers soon.

I have the instructions for the square patches here (NiQuitin Clear) and they do not mention anything about sun or suncream in the instructions. As I don't have any of the round ones left I cant check what the warnings are on those.

Luckily, the position I was sitting in for the 2 days meant that only my right side was exposed to the sun. As I alternated arms with the patches I assume had the sun caught my left side as well I would have had similar burns on that arm.

But yes, could have been a whole lot worse I suppose.

angle

pulliptears wrote: »

I have the instructions for the square patches here (NiQuitin Clear) and they do not mention anything about sun or suncream in the instructions. As I don't have any of the round ones left I cant check what the warnings are on those.

Luckily, the position I was sitting in for the 2 days meant that only my right side was exposed to the sun. As I alternated arms with the patches I assume had the sun caught my left side as well I would have had similar burns on that arm.

But yes, could have been a whole lot worse I suppose.

I don't imagine there will be much difference between the square and the round ones. Will you contact the manufacturers?