A NEW campaign has been launched to help smokers stub out the habit.

Regional health bosses are backing the initiative, which includes a hard-hitting TV advert.

The Public Health England (PHE) film says poisons from tar in cigarettes enter the bloodstream and spread around the body within seconds, damaging major organs.

As the ad hits screens, new figures reveal that across Yorkshire and the Humber, 62,000 hospital admissions a year are linked to smoking.

And the annual death rate in the region from smoking-related diseases is 9,000.

Scott Crosby, for PHE Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "Smoking is a deadly addiction, and for every death, another 20 people have a disease linked to it.

"The number of hospital admissions as a result of smoking is equivalent to 170 every day.

"We are urging every smoker in the region to take advantage of the free support available and quit for good this New Year."

The TV advert focuses on seven lifelong smokers who declare their intention to quit after seeing the results of a lab demonstration, which reveal raised levels of cadmium, cancer-causing nitrosamines and carbon monoxide in their blood.

A range of support, from face-to-face sessions to stop-smoking aids, is available from NHS Smokefree for anyone wishing to quit.

For more details, visit nhs.uk/smokefree.