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“is nicotine in and of itself dangerous to be addicted to?”

Nicotine is toxic by itself, but the dosage in cigarettes or e-cigarettes is far too low to cause any acute illness besides nausea. There might very well be long term effects from prolonged usage, but I’m not sure about that.

Nicotine is toxic by itself, but the dosage in cigarettes or e-cigarettes is far too low to cause any acute illness besides nausea. There might very well be long term effects from prolonged usage, but I’m not sure about that.

The generally accepted toxicity level was actually "discovered" about 100 years ago, through a very non-scientific self-experiment, and a very, very, questionable extrapolation of the results. It has no real scientific validity, has never been restudied (AFAIK), and has never been confirmed in real life (AFAIK). It appears that the actual toxicity level is at least 5x, and probably much more, than the conventionally accepted level, based solely on anecdotal evidence, which is actually the only evidence we have.

This is why attempts to commit suicide via nicotine ingestion have been more embarrassing than successful, despite greatly exceeding the "toxic level". There have never been any studies on prolonged serum levels akin to a smoker. However, bear in mind that just about everybody has nicotine in their system, primarily through diet, and if there really were a long-term danger to nicotine exposure, one would think that the body would rid itself of all, not just some, of the nicotine in the blood.

Nicotine is toxic by itself, but the dosage in cigarettes or e-cigarettes is far too low to cause any acute illness besides nausea. There might very well be long term effects from prolonged usage, but I’m not sure about that.

Water is toxic as well if you consume it in quantities large enough. Oxygen is the reason your cells age and die, but without it you'll die anyway. I have yet to see any studies showing that any reasonable amount of nicotine a person would consume would do any damage. Most of the cigarette issues are other chemicals in them, and breathing in the physical smoke particles.