London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is marking World No Tobacco Day on 31 May with a four-day exhibition of photographs and images exploring this year's theme of 'Film and Fashion' in its Keppel Street Building.

'The tobacco industry utilises the power of the multimedia to promote and sell its deadly product', comments Sue Lawrence, one of the exhibition's organisers. 'Young people are particularly vulnerable targets for these images, and the tobacco industry knows that over 90% of smokers start before the age of eighteen. Tobacco advertising makes false associations between smoking and images of beauty, sexiness and desirability. We would like to steal back the techniques used by the tobacco industry to remind people of the real consequences of smoking'.

'Many of us are unaware of what we take in and how it influences our behaviours', she adds. 'Though this exhibit may not prompt people to stop smoking, we expect it to raise awareness for those brief moments in which it is in the front of our minds'.

When the exhibition ends, the images will appear on the School's website at www.lshtm.ac.uk.

The exhibition runs from 27-30 May. For more information, or to interview Sue Lawrence, please contact the School's Press Office in 020 7927 2073. Find out more about World No Tobacco Day 2003 on ww5.who.int/tobacco

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