The Airway · Lungs
A moving carpet of mucus that sweeps dirt back out.
Your airways are lined with a sticky film of mucus and millions of microscopic hairs called cilia. The hairs beat in waves — around a thousand times a minute — pushing that mucus, and everything caught in it, steadily upward and out.
It's called the mucociliary escalator, and it runs all day: dust, pollen, bacteria and soot get trapped, carried up to the throat, and swallowed without you ever noticing. Every airway above the air sacs is protected this way.
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