Your first cigaretteTo be honest, inhaling the fumes from some burning leaves isn't the most natural thing in the world.
Tell us about the first time. Where, when, and who were you trying to show off to?
Or, if you've never tried a cigarette, tell us something interesting on the subject of smoking.
Personally, I've never ever smoked a cigarette. Lung damage from pneumonia put me off.
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chthonic, Wed 19 Mar 2008, 18:49)
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Pleural DriftYou often hear how dirty the lungs of smokers are supposed to be. I once worked on a project where we looked at samples of lung tissue from both smokers & nonsmokers. Surprisingly, the tissue from both populations looked alike: nice and clean.
Particles from smoke that deposit in the lungs are captured by cells called phagocytes. The cells then transport their load of particles outward across the lungs, in a process called pleural drift, around and through blood vessels and air sacs, until they reach the outer surface of the lung, called the pleural membrane, where they dump the particles.
So, the lymph nodes of smokers, and the pleural membranes, are quite dirty, but the inside of the lungs are quite nice. Apparently if the lung interiors actually get dirty, you die fast.
(, Wed 19 Mar 2008, 22:43, Reply)
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