Mr. Sault's Classroom
Lungs 101: How Does Smoking Hurt Your Lungs?(June?3,?2008)—Smoking seriously damages your lungs in several important ways. ?It interferes with your lungs’ natural cleaning and repair system. Smoking destroys the tiny hairs known as cilia that line the upper airways and protect against infection. Normally, your airways have a thin layer of mucus and thousands of cilia. The mucus traps the tiny particles of dirt and pollution you breathe in, while the thousands of cilia move like a wave to push the dirty mucus out of your lungs. When you cough, swallow or spit up mucus, the dirt leaves your lungs.Because smoking destroys cilia, the dirt and pollution stays in your lungs, along with chemicals from cigarette smoke. This gunk in your lungs can put you at risk for developing lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chest infections and chronic cough.Smoking also damages the air sacs, or alveoli, in the lungs, which makes it difficult to breathe. The alveoli at the ends of your airways are like little stretchy balloons. When you breathe in, the alveoli help absorb oxygen, and when you breathe out, they help get rid of the waste gas, carbon dioxide. When you smoke, the alveoli become less stretchy, so it’s more difficult for your lungs to take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. As alveoli are destroyed, the lungs transfer less and less oxygen to the bloodstream, causing you to feel short of breathIf you’re a smoker and you feel any of the following symptoms, you are experiencing signs of lung damage:feeling out of breath when you walk up a short flight of stairscoughing?spitting up mucus?repeat chest infectionsSee your doctor right away for help in quitting and treating your symptoms—if you don’t, these symptoms will just keep getting worse.Question AnalysisWhat does smoking damage?What is the function of cilia and mucous?Why might shortness of breath be prevalent amongst smokers? ................
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