Giving up the ciggies is a hard task for any smoker, but one Melbourne hospital has hit on a possible solution — a verbal spray from a bunch of forthright Grade 6 children.

In a bid to stop smokers from lighting up outside the main entrance, Frankston Hospital trialled a looped recording of the primary students’ self-scripted anti-smoking messages, such as “Your smoking makes me sad and angry”.

It did the trick, with the number of cigarettes smoked outside the entrance in the evenings and on weekends dropping from 4.4 an hour to 1.7 an hour, when the recording was played at three-minute intervals, Dr Ashley Webb from Peninsula Health told ABC Radio and 3AW.

“These messages from these Grade 6 Frankston Primary School kids really connected with smokers and moved them away from the entrance,” he told the ABC.