I used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day and I hacked up a lot more crud in the morning doing that. I'm a pretty heavy herb guy and honestly, I only ever hack up crud when I'm vaporizing (it's like my body is cleaning itself out when I do that) and I use a lot of pipe and bong. It's only ever during use do I seem to cough up stuff.

I smoked a 12" joint the other day solo and was coughing pretty hard at the end of that but that's probably heavier usage than is typical.

If you're concerned about health issues with it though, you'd want to go the vaporizer route. It's far easier on your lungs.

Also there's a lot of things to consider, IE with a bong, the better it water filters, the better it should be theoretically though I've seen some studies that say that Bongs actually have a lot of tar in them. And with joints, you're introducing hemp or rice paper to the mix. Cellulose paper does have the cleanest taste but it burns too funky for me.