I just finished my rotation at the medical examiner's office. The "couple of pounds" of tar in the lungs was probably more mucus than anything. Also, they may well have been washing out the congestion caused by respiratory depression. But it's quite unlikely that it was "tar", though I'm sure plenty of black carbon, or "anthracotic pigment" came out too.
I say this because a smoker who dies of, say, a sudden massive heart attack, doesn't have especially heavy lungs. The heaviness comes from other, secondary issues.
Also, I had never heard of this before. We mainly just weighed the lungs and then examined them under the microscope.
Yeah, this made me wonder, in lieu of a lung transplant, what if they just took out a smoker's lung and gave it a good wash and then stuck it back in again? It sounds like you are saying that alot of other things go wrong with such a lung, not just a buildup of tar.
Or leave it in and use a splash of perfluorocarbon to prophylactically rinse it out a bit, once every couple of years or so.
Even if the breathing liquid does not dissolve all the lung crud directly, the mechanical action of filling and draining the alveoli might clear some of it out or thin it enough for the cilia to move it.
At the very least, once the carcinogens have done their job and induced a cancer washing them out would be a bit of "shutting the barn door after the cows have run away".
I say this because a smoker who dies of, say, a sudden massive heart attack, doesn't have especially heavy lungs. The heaviness comes from other, secondary issues.
Also, I had never heard of this before. We mainly just weighed the lungs and then examined them under the microscope.