• Question: How is snot produced?

    Asked by anon-182874 to Laurent on 28 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Laurent Dupays

      Laurent Dupays answered on 28 Jun 2018:

      What a lovely question 🙂
      Do you know about mucus? It is the scientific word for it! Your nose and sinuses make about a 1 liter of mucus every day…It is made by cells in membranes that run from your nose to your lungs. Mucus has a pretty important job, it keeps the lining of your nose moist and warms the air you breathe. When you breathe in air through your nose, it contains lots of tiny things, like dust, dirt, germs, and pollen. If these made it all the way to the lungs, the lungs could get irritated or infected, making it tough to breathe. Luckily, snot helps trap this stuff, keeping it in the nose and out of the lungs.

Comments

  • Photo: Liza

    Liza commented on :

    Agreed. Snot gets a really bad reputation but actually it is incredibly useful and saves us from getting lots of lung infections. It is so useful that our cells are actually instructed to produce it by genes in our DNA! People with cystic fibrosis have problems with these genes which make them produce very thick snot that gets stuck in the lungs along with any germs that become trapped in the snot. As a result, cystic fibrosis sufferers are at high risk of developing serious chest infections.