What is Tar And How Does It Damage The Lungs?

Tar.  You hear the word bandied around a lot, from quit smoking campaigns to doctors offices, but there are a lot of people who just have no idea what it is.  Tar is an combination of mucus, produced by the lungs in reaction to the irritation of cigarette smoke, and constituents of that cigarette smoke; many poisons, toxins and carcinogens (chemicals that cause cancer).  But there is much more to it than that.

Tar can contain upwards of 4000 chemicals, many of which, in higher quantities than you get in cigarette smoke, are outright poisons.  They are something that you really, REALLY don’t want in your lungs, and from there they sneak out to damage the rest of your body, too. This is how tar damages your lungs

Some of the worst cigarette chemicals include:

• Acetone – the solvent in nail polish remover.  Creates that sharp smell that we know well from the nail salons.
• Ammonia – this one is used in toilet cleaner.  It is highly irritating.
• Arsenic – a highly effective poison when used on mammals, and a regular in rat poison.
• Benzine – we use this as a petrol additive. It can cause effects from headaches and dizziness all the way up to unconsciousness.
• Carbon monoxide – a poison most often associated with car exhaust fumes.
• Hydrogen cyanide – a poison strongly associated with the gas chambers in the second world war.

All of these and more are in every puff of a cigarette, and if they were in just slightly higher quantities, you’d be dead already.  But you’re not, and to stay that way, you want to get this muck out of your lungs – fast!  Because every moment that it stays in there, it causes more damage.

This lung damage takes three main forms:

• Chronic Bronchitis – a long-term inflammation of the airways that can lead to obstruction and scarring of the lung (bronchial) tubes, leading to asthma-like symptoms and more mucus production.  And yes, more of that ‘smokers cough.’
• Emphysema – destruction of the lung sac walls, which in turn reduces surface area and hence lung efficiency.  This one is non-repairable with current medical knowledge, and anyone who has been smoking more than a few weeks is slowly developing it.  Be warned.
• The dreaded Lung Cancers – there are actually multiple types of these, some worse than others, but it’s a simple fact that while that Tar is in your lungs, your chance of developing a lung cancer is MUCH higher than when all that Tar is gone.

So you really want to quit smoking ciagrette, keep off the cancer sticks, and clean out your lungs after smoking to minimise this damage – and start today.