Your lungs are a pair of organs situated in your chest behind your ribcage. The primary function of your lungs is breathing, but they also play another vital role as part of your excretory system.
Background
Your excretory system is the group of organs responsible for removing harmful chemicals and impurities from your body. The major organs of the excretory system are your kidneys, skin and lungs.
Respiration
Respiration is the phenomenon of oxygen combining with sugar in your cells to create energy to power your body. Carbon dioxide is the byproduct of this reaction
Function Of The Lungs
Your lungs remove the carbon dioxide that builds in your blood from respiration using specialized branches of cells called alveoli. It is this process specifically that makes lungs a part of the excretory system.
Breathing
Once your alveoli capture the carbon dioxide, your lungs process the molecules into gas and expel the carbon dioxide gas when you breathe out. As you breathe in, your lungs take in oxygen, which they transfer to the blood so the cycle can begin again.
Considerations
Without the excretory effects of your lungs, carbon dioxide would build up in your body, causing a number of possible complications, including heart rate changes, seizures, coma and, eventually, death.
Tags: carbon dioxide, excretory system, your body, Function Lungs, your lungs