What exactly happens to the juice after it enters the lungs?

[KiloWatts]

I'm curious as to how our lungs are cleared out. From what I understand, our lungs do not have a self-cleaning mechanism (other than coughing). So, considering I go through about 5ml of juice per day, what's happening to that juice? Is there accumulation?

I've noticed some interesting effects from my 3 months of vaping, but I won't get into it here. I'm just curious as to the process of clearing out the lungs. I don't know if anyone else here has seen the macro-photography of the atomizer with the caramelized juice (can someone find it?), but that picture has skeeved me out since I saw it. Is that happening to our lungs?

 

[KiloWatts]

Also I realize I repeated the same question like five times there.

 

[mwa102464]

Do yourself a favor, blow your vapor through a tissue, then blow a drag of a cigarette through the same tissue, this will answer your question about why your lungs clear up using vapor. There is no tar in the vapor like the cigarette so your lungs wont turn black, I'm not saying vaping is 100% safe but way way safer than cigarettes and no black lungs from vaping, blow that vapor into that tissue and see the difference.

 

[KiloWatts]

There's no doubt in my mind it's safer than cigarette smoke. But this is a test using a single puff. We take hundreds of puffs per day.

Obviously the ideal situation would be if 100% of the juice is metabolized out of the lungs, leaving nothing behind. Is that the case though?

 

[haft2doit]

I believe there are cilia in the lungs that actively remove stuff from the lungs to the point where coughing ejects it from the body. As for ejuice I think it is treated much like water. There is an active transport mechanism that absorbs water and other things through the lungs. If you couldn't do this we would drown. Air contains water vapor and our lungs get it out of there. It is also removed just with breathing. I am by no means an expert on the subject but I'm pretty sure it is treated like water in the lungs.

 

[haft2doit]

The flavoring is the thing I'm more concerned about inhaling. As for the gunk on the coil. There has been some evidence that the gunk is partly a buildup of air impurities that get get caught at the coil. No doubt there is some breakdown of the vg/pg due to the high heat at the coil. Gunk on the coil however does not represent what you inhale. It shows remnants of the juice left behind after juice has been vaporized. Unless your lungs are heated to hundreds of degrees, there won't be any of this gunk in them. The gunk produced by cigarettes does represent what you inhale from them as it's a result of combustion. Combustion and vaporization are two very different reactions. Combustion starts with one thing add heat get completely different chemicals. Vaporization takes one thing add heat get same thing in a different state.

 

[rolygate]

I like the idea of VG causing a small amount of phlegm that is coughed up, perhaps bringing any foreign materials with it. Seems a good idea to me.