Amazing facts about your lungs

Situated within the thoracic cavity of the chest, your lungs are part of your respiratory system and are essential in supplying the body with oxygen.

These amazing facts about your lungs will take your breath away!

• Your lungs form part of the largest organs in your body. The surface area of both lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court and the total length of the airways running through them is about 2,400 kilometres, that’s about the distance from Mauritius to Mozambique!
• Filled with air, the lungs are the only organs in the human body that can float on water. Each of your lungs contains about 300 million balloon-like structures called alveoli, which replace the carbon-dioxide waste in your blood with oxygen.
• The two lungs are not the same size. The left one is smaller than the right one so your heart can fit in your chest.
• The average total lung capacity for an adult is about 6 litres.
• As adults we breathe 15-20 times per minute and take on average 20,000 breaths per day, or about 7 million breaths a year.