Smokers, listen up. If you’ve been struggling to kick the habit, then this video might just put you off for good.
The graphic clip from MEDspiration offers a glimpse of what your lungs would apparently look like after smoking 20 cigarettes.
It shows a blackened trachea and discoloured lungs - all after smoking the contents of just one pack.
Medical students put a pair of lungs in a glass box, which had a funnel leading straight to a cigarette - much like the opening of a person’s mouth.
A series of cigarettes were then lit, with the toxins being directed straight into the “healthy” lungs.
After a pack of Marlboro menthol cigarettes had been “smoked”, scientists cut open the trachea (also known as the windpipe) to find it was covered in a thick coating of black tar.
When they cut into the lungs, the organs had been discoloured.
It is estimated that every cigarette a person smokes reduces their lifespan by 11 minutes and researchers believe that overall there’s a 6.5 year difference in life expectancy between smokers and non smokers.
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While the experiment was incredibly eye-opening, there were a few downsides to it - as some Facebook users were quick to point out.
Firstly, the set up showed the result of smoking 20 cigarettes on the trot, without a break. Secondly, at no point did the scientific apparatus depicting a human body exhale any smoke.
The harmful effects of smoking are clear though - and the benefits of quitting far outweigh any negatives.
According to the NHS, people breathe more easily and cough less when they give up smoking because their lung capacity improves by up to 10% within nine months.
Within two to 12 weeks of quitting your blood circulation improves. This can lead to heightened sensitivity, meaning better sex.
Taste and smell also improves, as does fertility.