POSTERS that highlight the link between smoking and heart disease are going up around the region.

The posters, which will appear in Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Langbaurgh, Stockton and Wear Valley, are intended to drive home the message of a television advertising campaign.

Devised by the British Heart Foundation and paid for by the Department of Health, the £4m campaign features disturbing images of sinister ripples under smokers' skin, symbolising the unseen damage to the heart and circulation smoking causes.

The ads feature the voice of Frank Sinatra singing I've Got You Under my Skin.

A survey by the foundation suggested that more than half of smokers did not realise that damage to smoker's hearts is caused by inhaling tobacco smoke.

The campaign also stresses that more and more people are giving up smoking by using nicotine patches or nicotine chewing gum.

Professor Peter Weissberg, of the foundation, said: "If all smokers were to trade cigarettes for nicotine patches or chewing gum tomorrow, we would see a dramatic fall in the number of deaths from heart disease. Every 35 minutes, a smoker dies needlessly from a heart attack when a blood clot blocks a coronary artery.

"Cigarette smoke damages the walls of our arteries, increasing the build-up of fatty deposits and constricting the flow of blood to the heart. This build-up, known as atherosclerosis, can lead to the formation of blood clots, which cause heart attacks."

To find your nearest NHS Stop Smoking Service, go to bhf.org.uk/smoking or call 0800 169 1900.