A great set of lungs is a smoke-free set of lungs - 8/10/2003

So, what's in that cigarette, cigar or chewing tobacco and just how could it make lungs look like this?

According to the government, about 4,000 chemicals can wind up in tobacco, many of which are food additives and preservatives. Bad chemicals also find their way into tobacco products.

Nicotine is the drug that makes tobacco addictive. In addition to nicotine, you also might find rat poison (arsenic), floor cleaner (ammonia), the bad smelling liquid used to preserve dead bodies (formaldehyde), lighter fluid (butane), bug spray chemicals (many different insecticides and pesticides) and even nail polish remover (acetone). That's a lot of chemicals.

Every time you chew tobacco or smoke a cigarette or cigar, you breathe in not only those chemicals, but also carbon monoxide, a gas that can kill. The chemicals that do get in your body can build up and cause cancer or make it hard to breathe. And while you're letting all those chemicals into your body, you are also allowing tar - yup, the stuff you find melting on the road in summer - and other chemicals to make your lungs black and hard, while gumming up the cilia in your lungs. A smoker's lungs don't look soft and pink like the lungs Dr. Manak Sood is inflating with a tube.

And all those chemicals? They make it hard to get enough oxygen for your body, which means you tire easier than your non-smoking friends.

DID YOU KNOW???

Blood isn't red until it has made contact with oxygen. The protein hemoglobin attaches to oxygen and changes shape, consequently changing its color. Otherwise, your blood is a dark color, almost blue or purple.