How do our lungs not fill up with dust?
In: Biology
They do. This tends to cause problems.
We have many layers of defense set up to prevent dust from getting into our lungs, but as these are evolved defenses, they aren’t perfect, nor are they effective at preventing dusts that didn’t exist in our evolutionary history.
So for typical dusts that we’re likely to experience in everyday life, our dust filters are pretty good at keeping them out of our lungs. That’s part of the point of our nasal system – hairs and mucus trap dust particles, coughs and sneezes and manual removal get rid of trapped particles.
But where this breaks down is in fine, sharp particles like volcanic ash or asbestos. These particles are small enough to bypass our natural filters, and once they get into the lungs they’re difficult to get out. Inside the lungs, they tend to damage our sensitive tissues, which causes a whole host of problems. Biggest among them is that they can cut up our lung tissue, which both reduces our lung capacity and forces our lung tissues to reproduce more often to repair the damage. This is a problem, because every cell division is an opportunity for a cellular mutation that can lead to decreased functionality or cancerous growth.
So if you work with fine dust, don’t just assume that you can tough it out. Wear an appropriate mask to protect yourself.
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