re smoker s lungs in article apr kuhub cc ukans edu bennett kuhub cc ukans edu writes how long does it take a smoker s lungs to clear of the tar after quitting does your chances of getting lung cancer decrease quickly or does it take a considerable amount of time for that to happen the answer to your first question is rather difficult to answer without doing a lot of autopsies the second question is something that s been known for some time it appears that within about years of quitting smoking a person s risk for developing lung cancer drops to that of the person who never smoked assuming you do not get lung cancer in the interim the risk to someone who smoked the equivalent of a pack per day for years is around times as high as a non smoker still rather low overall but significant personally i d be more concerned about heart disease secondary to smoking it s much more common and even a small increase in risk is significant there kenneth gilbert university of pittsburgh general internal medicine dammit not a programmer
