SMOKERS smoking roll-ups could be kidding themselves it is less deadly – that’s the message from Fresh as they urge people in the North-East to quit for good this New Year.

The warning that roll-ups are just as harmful comes as new figures show 30 per cent of smokers in the North East – around 153,000 people - smoke roll-ups as part of their overall tobacco consumption.

Hand rolling has doubled since 2009, meaning many smokers have switched from smoking just cigarette sticks.

Today, Public Health England launches a powerful new campaign to highlight how smoking damages the body and causes a slow and steady decline in a process akin to rotting.

The campaign launches as a new expert review commissioned by Public Health England highlights the multiple impacts that toxic ingredients in cigarettes can have on your body.

Whilst many smokers know that smoking causes cancer and harms the lungs and heart, the new report highlights how it also damages bones and muscles, the brain, teeth and eyes

With New Year’s resolutions approaching and two thirds of smokers saying they want to quit , new adverts are being used to graphically illustrate the degeneration that smoking causes.

The campaign also tackles common misconceptions around hand-rolled tobacco, or roll-ups. Use of roll-ups nationally has increased significantly. In 1990, 18 per cent of male smokers and two per cent of female smokers said they smoked mainly hand-rolled cigarettes but by 2013 this had risen to 40 per cent for men and 23 per cent for women .

New figures show that half of smokers (49 per cent), who only smoke roll-ups, wrongly believe they are less harmful than manufactured cigarettes . In fact, hand-rolled cigarettes are at least as hazardous as any other type of cigarette .

Roll-ups contain as many harmful chemicals as manufactured cigarettes and smoking them attacks the body and causes the same health risks including cancer, stroke, heart and lung disease, impotence, infertility, and even amputation.

Yet some roll-up smokers believe hand rolling tobacco is more natural and avoids some of the health risks.

Lisa Surtees, acting director of Fresh, said: “It is vital people know that roll-ups are not organic, not natural, not pure, but are just as deadly. Hand rolled will kill one in two long term smokers, just the same as all cigarettes.”

There are more than 4,000 toxic chemicals inhaled when smoking cigarette sticks and hand rolling tobacco, many of which are carcinogenic and poisonous.

Claire Matthews, head of service for County Durham NHS Stop Smoking Service, said: “With our help smokers are much more likely to quit successfully than going it alone.”

For information about Stop Smoking Services see your local pharmacy or GP or ring the national helpline on 0300 123 1044