The National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom has released an application which will show smokers how fast they age due to the 4,000 chemicals found in cigarettes they puff.

Called Smoking Time Machine, the app could show up to 20 years of ageing effect caused by the nicotine vice. It includes deeper wrinkles in the eyes and mouth areas, gray colour of skin and sagging jowls.

The main target of the app are young people in a bid by the NHS to shock them into giving up the habit since other methods such as health warnings on cigarette packages, including graphic photos or images of damaged lungs such as the video below, apparently are not working.

The devastating effect of the 4,000 chemicals is the same as substances in aviation gas, bleach, embalming fluid and rat poison.

Most young smokers brush aside the negative health consequences of smoking such as cancer and lung ailments, "but this app uses their face and shows them how they will look. It's something that is very close to home and hard to ignore," the Daily Mail pointed out.

Besides the NHS, another effort to convince young people to stop smoking is the production of short films by students at Edinburgh College, which is the product of collaboration between its Creative Industries Department and the NHS Lothian Health Promotion Service.

The films tap facts, humour, animation and testimonies of real smokers. Its aim is to cut the current death rate of 13,000 young people who die early because of the habit.

If the film and the apps would still not do the trick, the NHS could perhaps try to use the approach made by the City of Toronto which launched a similar anti-smoking campaign by literally using toilet humour in this 59-second advert.

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