• Smoking is hazardous to your lungs' health."estr¨¦s" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: bachmont under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Function

• Smoking damages the lungs in two ways: it prevents them from being able to clean and repair themselves, trapping irritants inside, and it damages the air sacs, which causes breathing problems.
  
  

Significance

• The American Lung Association states that 73% of smoking-related health issues are chronic lung disease. The damage smoking does to the lungs is insidious, as 50% of the health issues affecting former smokers are lung-related.
  
  

Types

• Diseases of the lung caused by smoking include lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis (the latter two existing together are known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and pneumonia. Asthma and allergies are exacerbated by smoking.
  
  

Considerations

• According to the Canadian Lung Association, smokers should not ignore the following signs of lung damage: feeling out of breath after walking up a short flight of stairs, spitting up mucous, coughing and repeat chest infections.
  
  

Warning

• COPD cannot be cured, only managed."Inhaler" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: net_efekt (Christian Guthier) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  Lung diseases are very serious; some cannot be cured, only managed. If you smoke, the most important thing you can do to minimize lung damage is to quit today.