The Damages of Smoking

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1 The Damages of Smoking New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge Final Report April 6, 2016 Team 61 Los Lunas High School Area of Science: Health Team Members: Jen Marie Phifer Aaron Martin Gerald Sanchez Teacher: Anne Loveless Project Mentor: T.L. Thomas

2 Summary Smoking poses a danger to our lungs. Thus, in our project, we have decided to model and create a visual on how smoking damages the lungs. Our model is targeted toward males twenty to thirty years of age. Using abstraction, we decided to only model one alveolus and its alveolar gas exchange (or the diffusion process that happens between oxygen and carbon dioxide as we breathe in and out). Then to model the effects of smoking, we added the inhalation of smoke which would affect the radius of the alveolar airway tube. Problem Statement It has been known that smoking damages the lungs. To brainstorm ideas on how an individual might model the damages, an understanding of how the lungs work is required. The human lung, when exposed to any unwanted particles, produces mucus; this acts as an adhesive for the particles. With the particles sticking to the mucus, cilia lining the lungs help to extract the particles by acting as an escalator. The cilia sweep the mucus up the bronchi, through the trachea, and out the mouth when an individual coughs due to the irritation caused by the mucus. When an individual smokes, the carcinogens enter the lungs and paralyze the cilia. With the cilia paralyzed, the unwanted particles stay lodged within the lungs and irritate the alveoli. Consequently, the alveoli inflame and with the inflamed alveoli, a slowing of the alveolar gas exchange is created. The alveolar gas exchange deals with diffusion between oxygen and carbon dioxide. The alveolus has capillaries (small blood vessels) around it, separated only by a thin membrane. Oxygen comes in through the alveoli and carbon dioxide flows into the blood stream. When an individual breathes in, the oxygen and carbon dioxide diffuse, causing the gases to move into the space containing a lower concentration of that gas. Hence, the oxygen moves into the blood stream and carries oxygen to the body while the carbon dioxide moves into the alveoli and follows a path outside the body when the individual breathes out. However, with the carcinogens causing the alveolar tissue to swell, it causes less oxygen to pass into the alveolar airways and slow the diffusion process. The problem posed for this project is how our team would model the impairment of the alveolar gas exchange based on how much smoking is done.

3 Problem solution As mentioned earlier, we modeled the gas exchange process by having an inhalation of fifty oxygen molecules. The number was based off and scaled by 10 on the average number of air inhaled and exhaled per breath (otherwise known as the tidal volume) which was five-hundred milliliters. As the oxygen is inhaled, the walls of the alveolus expand. As they come into contact with the blue (un-oxygenated) blood cells, diffusion happens, causing carbon dioxide to come out of the un-oxygenated blood cells and oxygen to go in, thus turning the blood cells red. As carbon dioxide is exhaled, the walls of the alveolus deflate. With the addition of smoking, a slider was created which would allow the user to choose the amount of smoking done per day. This would then affect the intake of oxygen as well as the alveolar airway radius. The radius would become irritated due to the smoke and inflate. Using Poiseuille s Law Arranged for Flow, we were able to calculate the restriction amount of airway for the alveolus. Furthermore, with the addition of smoking, the inhalation and exhalation have been increased in speed to model that with the decrease in oxygen being able to enter the alveolus due to the inflation of the radius, an individual would need to breathe more rapidly to get the oxygen needed. Verification and Validation of model Our team tried our best in making this as accurate as we could. As would be expected, we had assumed many things for our model such as how much oxygen was being let into the lungs, how much carbon dioxide was being let out, how much smoke was being let in depending on the amount the individual would smoke, and variables of the Raw formula. This was done in order to narrow and simplify our problem in order to make it focused enough to be achieved. Despite the many assumptions that were made, much research was conducted about the many components we used such as how the alveolar gas exchange worked, how many cigarettes an average smoker smoked, and how the Resistance of Airway Flow was used. The three main sources that we gathered information from were a personal interview with an RT professor, textbooks on respiratory health, and internet sources. Of course, whenever we gathered information from the internet we had checked multiple resources as well as tried to stay within government and wellknown organizations.

Tables Parts of data collected Results of Study Our

alveolar airway decreased, so did the tidal volume.

4 Tables Parts of data collected Results of Study Our normal amount of tidal volume was roughly without smoking. However, once smoking started and the radius of the alveolar airway decreased, so did the tidal volume. From comparing the normal tidal volume which we found was an average of 49 in oxygen and 45 in

5 carbon dioxide to one with a sixty percent decrease in the radius, we have found that the numbers dropped more than half. Conclusions In conclusion, we have seen that with the increase of smoking, the decrease of the alveolar airway tube increases due to inflammation. The tidal volume drops and the inhalation and exhalation speed increases. This is due to the individual needing to breathe in more often to get the amount of needed oxygen. Significant Achievement In working on this project, our team had achieved many things. We had managed to gain a more in-depth understanding about the lungs and the effects smoking has on it. We also hope that through this model, people will think about how badly smoking damages the lungs. We also hope that they will see that with the amount of smoking they do, the more they damage their lungs and the more they wheeze and the faster they have to breathe because of the inflammation done to the airway tube. Software and References The computer language used in creating our model was NetLogo. Citations Fatta, Charles. How does smoking affect the lungs? Jen Marie Phifer. 8 December Interview. Gas Exchange. 18 November Web. 20 November Gas Exchange Web. 30 November Health Risks of Smoking Tobacco. 12 November Web. 3 December How SYMBICORT Works? October Web. 8 December Jardins, Terry Des. Cardiopulmonary Anatomy & Physiology Essentials of Respiratory Care sixth edition. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning, Print. What are the effects of smoking on the lungs? Web. 12 November 2015.

6 Wojciechowski, William V. "Physics." Respiratory Care Sciences: An Integrated Approach, Fifth Edition. Stamford: Cengage Learning, Print. Acknowledgement of People and Organizations We would like to thank Charles Fatta who agreed to an interview that provided us information relating to how the lungs work and the methods used in treating an unhealthy lung. We would also like to thank Elaine Phifer who had helped in arranging the interview. We would like to thank our mentor T.L. Thomas who had provided us with the help we needed in getting started and guiding us on finding other professors who could help us with our project. We would like to thank Geoff Danielson who reviewed our initial proposal and guided us in rethinking our problem (which would be too complex) and creating the program we currently have. We would like to thank Thomas Robey who reviewed our interim report and suggested questions we could ask ourselves about our purpose and goals for the project. This gave us great guidance in furthering our aims for this project. We would like to thank the reviewers who reviewed our project during the evaluations held in February. We had gotten great feedback, critiques, and suggestions from them. We would also like to thank Anne Loveless who had helped us throughout our project. Team Members Info Jen Marie Phifer Sophomore Aaron Martin Sophomore

7 Gerald Sanchez Junior

PARTS AND STRUCTURE OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

PARTS AND STRUCTURE OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM Parts of the Respiratory System The RS can be divided into two parts: 1. Respiratory Tract, (path that air follows). Nasal passage Pharynx Larynx Trachea Bronchi,