Blackened lung breathes life into anti-smoking effort

Some visitors at the Body Worlds exhibit gasp when they see what smoking can do to a human lung. Others cough. According to the Franklin Institute the blackened organ of a cigarette smoker displayed beside a healthy lung definitely gets people talking. The display is now a rallying point for anti-smoking groups.

When the American Cancer Society used Yul Brynner in a stop-smoking ad, it was a message from beyond the grave.

"Now that I'm gone I tell you: Don't smoke."

That was shocking in 1985, to hear from an actor who was already dead from lung cancer. Now Body Worlds takes a new tack. A white healthy lung is juxtaposed against a shrunken black lung clogged with cigarette soot – both are real human lungs preserved with plastic chemical process. Kate Merk and Kim Sides are nursing students from Media, and both say the lungs make a strong case.

Merk: You see what happens outside, but you never really know how much is changes on the inside. It's neat to see that.

Sides: You know everybody has a smoker's cough – I see why.

The Franklin Institute is inviting visitors to throw away their packs of cigarettes, and providing information on how to get help to stop smoking.