A SMOKER'S vanity and their libido is the new target for health lobbyists keen to make them quit at the end of a bad year for the committed smoker.

The NHS says new research has found smoking is the biggest turn-off for youngsters aged 18-35.

As well as hitting smokers' pockets with price hikes and threats about the dire health consequences of the habit, the warning that it could be scaring off potential partners will increase the pressure on people to give up.

The surveyors asked 1,013 Midlanders aged 18-35 if smoking was a sexual turn-off. Two thirds of the group agreed it was.

Stamina

The survey also found half would reject or cut short a kiss from a smoker, and half associated smoking with having less stamina and being unfit.

Are young shoppers in Worcester turned off by the habit? Would they kick it if they thought it was ruining their love life?

"I've never smoked and it is off-putting. When I got together with my boyfriend, I said I wouldn't kiss him if he smoked," said Mary Morrison, aged 21, who lives with her boyfriend Daniel Davis in Worcester city centre.

"I've always wanted to stop," said Daniel, aged 25, "but I needed a good enough reason. When Mary asked me to stop, I did. But I still wake up every day wanting a cigarette, though."

Karen Page, aged 18, is a smoker from Crickley Drive, Warndon. She has had boyfriends in the past that tolerated her "addiction".

"I'll give up when I want to give up - not for someone else.

"I went out with a boy who didn't smoke," she added, "but he didn't care that I did."

Health bosses would thank James Addis, aged 21, from Infirmary Walk near the city centre, for his services to the anti-smoking movement - he persuaded an ex-girlfriend to quit.

"I don't like smoking and it is definitely not attractive. I've made an ex quit - the last time I saw her she wasn't smoking," said the student.

Mark Harrison, aged 19, from Bath Road, defiantly said a potential girlfriend's opinion of his habit didn't matter to him.

"I'm not really trying to impress - if it was her opinion that smoking is horrible, so be it - I wouldn't give up for her," he said.