That smoking is unhealthy is a fact that surprises absolutely no one. Seeing the actual damage cigarettes can do to a lung, however, is quite a bit different than hearing about it from your 5th grade D.A.R.E. instructor. In a new video nurse Amanda Eller posted to Facebook, viewers can note the many differences between a healthy lung and the lung of a smoker—both their coloration and how they move.
The dramatic color difference between the healthy lung (pink) and a smoker's lung (black) is the first thing one notices when opening the video. After years of breathing in tar, there isn't a speck of rosy material anywhere to be seen.
There are other problems happening beneath the smoker's lung's surface, however. Eller inflates the lungs to demonstrate their functionality. The healthy lung retains air and lets it out gradually. The smoker's lung, however, discards its air almost as quickly as it came in. Eller attributes this to a lack of internal structure:
The elastance is gone. So they will stretch out but then the recoil of them just snaps right back because there's nothing left to hold them open.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) attributes 443,000 U.S. deaths each year to smoking. 138,000 of those are a result of lung cancer. Despite this, it often takes unsettling physiological displays like Eller's video to shock others away from smoking. A Facebook user commented:
That's it, no more. I am DONE smoking I swear to the LORD I just had my last cigarette.
Hopefully others will feel similarly! Eller's video has been shared over 600k times. Statistically speaking, it's like at least one life will be saved by the unsettling images. Way to go, Amanda!
If you want to quit smoking, the CDC offers these helpful tips! Check them out.
H/T - IFL Science, CDC, Amanda Eller/Facebook