Hi docs, will your lungs clean the tar from cigars/cigarettes?

No...: That is, until you stop smoking. Cigarette smoke poisons the little hair cells in the airways called "cilia." These little hair cells clean the airways of the junk that we breathe in. With smoking, however, you can't clear the junk breathed in, and the tar and other "gunk" accumulates in the lungs. That's why, interestingly, people who stop smoking cough more. The lungs now can clear themselves