Jar of tar enough to put off Felpham students

The jar was the most gruesome exhibit in a display held to mark national no smoking day.

The container held the amount of the noxious substance which would accumulate in a year in the lungs of a smoker with a 20-a-day habit.

Harry (16) said: "I smoked on and off for about a year. I would get through a packet of ten cigarettes every two days.

"But I love sports and being fit. I did a cross country run and my time was down after a year of smoking.

"That's when I decided to give up because my fitness was getting worse.

"Cigarettes are disgusting and smokers smell like ashtrays."

He was tempted to take up the habit after becoming drunk with some friends. His girlfriend at the time was also a smoker as well as his dad.

Fellow pupil Hayley Johnstone (16) has got through 10 to 20 cigarettes a day for the past three years after a group of friends encouraged her to start.

"I don't like smoking because it really makes you smell. But I don't have the willpower to give up," she explained. Seeing the jar with the tar in it has really put me off smoking. I definitely want to give up at some point because I know it's bad for me. But it's an addiction at the end of the day."

Latest county figures show that 30 per cent of 14 to 15-year-old girls smoke and one in five boys of the same age smoke.

This means that some 325 pupils among Felpham's 1,300 students are smokers.

Maria Parton, who is the leader of Felpham Youth Wing at the college, organised the no smoking exhibition.

She and school nurse Sue Payne were inundated with pupils keen to know more about the effects of smoking.

"We have had a very positive reaction," said Maria. "They are getting the message about smoking.

"A lot of them have very strong views about the fact they don't smoke and that's fantastic."