Graphic Video of Black Cigarette-Damaged Lungs Sees Smokers Quit on the Spot

A video posted on TikTok of a smoker's lungs set next to a pair of normal, healthy lungs is horrifying some addicts so much that they committed on the spot to quitting.

With advertisements, warnings and information abundantly available, everyone knows smoking is bad for your health and that it increases your risk of developing numerous diseases, including cancer. But there's nothing quite like seeing the direct effects for yourself to get the message across.

Tiktok user Kanye South shared the eye-opening clip on her TikTok page, Kanye.Skillman.

In what appears to be a classroom, in an unknown location, a pair of healthy lungs is inflated. The colour is light pink, and the organ massively expands as air is pumped inside it, almost doubling in size.

In a shocking contrast, the camera then switches to the lungs of a smoker, which are black, with patches of grey and white lines running across them.

The lungs, which appear shrivelled, are pumped up in the same way, but they barely inflate in comparison.

South captioned the video: "Healthy lungs vs smoker's lungs."

The clip, shared on Sunday, has already been watched more than nine million times, as some people admitted they didn't realize smoking turns your organs black.

The graphic video was so visceral it prompted a few smokers to claim they were planning to quit on the spot.

Ex-smoker Polly wrote: "Guess I was meant to see this. Smoked for 40 years. Today is day 6 of quitting. Not easy."

A.S. confessed: "Having a cigarette while watching this. This is the first time in 5 years I have seriously considered quitting."

Lordzolton revealed: "I've been living with my chain smoker dad for 18 years. I don't smoke, but I'm afraid my lungs went black."

Liya Violette commented: "I might quit smoking."

"I knew they said smoking causes lungs to change color, but I didn't expect it to be this black, I always believed it to be a darker shade of pink," Elena Paula said.

Smoking is the cause of more than 480,000 deaths each year in America, nearly one in five of the total, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The CDC said: "Smoking can cause lung disease by damaging your airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) found in your lungs. Lung diseases caused by smoking include COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

"Cigarette smoking causes most cases of lung cancer. If you have asthma, tobacco smoke can trigger an attack or make an attack worse. Smokers are 12 to 13 times more likely to die from COPD than nonsmokers."

Newsweek reached out to South for a comment.