P is for PHLEGM
The
linings of our airways make a liquid – mucus –
that catches any dust and bacteria that enter our lungs. Tiny hairs (cilia)
waft the mucus up the airways. Normally we just swallow the mucus without
realising it. But smoke causes more mucus to be formed at the same time
as it paralyses the cilia. So the body has to cough
up the mucus instead.A cough is our body’s way of getting rid of poison chemicals in the lungs – fast. Germs stay around to infect the linings of the lung. This means long-term smokers have to keep "clearing their chest", especially when they wake in the morning. This is to shift the sputum that has built up deep in their chest overnight.
Sputum is mucus mixed with pus (blood fluids, white blood cells, living and dead bacteria, and the remains of damaged cells from the linings of the lungs). It’s the result of lung infection.