Scientific Review Paper Finds Exposure to Smoking in Movies is a Major Influence in Promoting Adolescent Smoking

Scientific Review Paper Finds Exposure to Smoking in Movies is a Major Influence in Promoting Adolescent Smoking

First Comprehensive Look at 42 Independent Studies Regarding Smoking in Movies

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple scientific studies conducted both domestically and abroad now confirm that smoking in the movies is prevalent and has a negative effect on adolescents, according to a review article published in this month's issue of Pediatrics.

The article, Smoking in Movies Increases Adolescent Smoking: A Review, examined 42 studies conducted between 1994 and 2005 on the issue of smoking in the movies and concludes that there is strong and consistent evidence that smoking in movies promotes youth smoking. Annemarie Charlesworth, M.A., and Stanton Glantz, PhD, of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted this review.

According to the article, which follows an earlier study by Dartmouth Medical School that linked adolescent smoking to seeing smoking in movies, the review found that:

- Since 2002 the number of youth-rated movies with smoking released each
year has outnumbered R-rated movies with smoking.
- Smoking scenes almost never show tobacco's negative effects, and in
fact, leave adolescents with the impression that smoking is glamorous or
beneficial.
- The current movie rating system does not prevent children from seeing
smoking in movies.

"We now have multiple studies making the same point: adolescents who see a lot of smoking in the movies are more likely to start smoking themselves," Glantz said.

The findings from this review identify a need for the Motion Picture Association of America to take a serious look at its ratings system and for parents to take an active role in seeking out information about the movies their children will be viewing, particularly in examining smoking content. Studies reviewed in the article have concluded that anti-tobacco messages prior to a movie with smoking can diminish the influence of smoking scenes on adolescent smoking(1).

Just last month according to the Associated Press, an MPAA spokesperson claimed that MPAA ratings already indicate whether a movie depicts underage smoking. But some public health and tobacco control advocates question this claim. According to the tobacco-content monitoring project, Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down, which is conducted by the Sacramento-Emigrant Trails chapter of the American Lung Association, at least a dozen movies released since 2002 feature teenage characters using tobacco. More than half were rated PG or PG-13. The rating label on only one film, Saved! (PG-13), discloses that kids smoke in it.

"Right now, youth are not seeing pre-movie messages about the dangers of smoking. Parents also are not receiving information about smoking as it appears in movies at the theater or on video packaging," said American Legacy Foundation President and CEO Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH. "This research shows that such changes could have a dramatic impact on youth smoking rates."

The American Legacy Foundation has collaborated with Smoke Free Movies at the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, researchers from Dartmouth University and the Avalon Theater study in Washington, D.C., and local and state health departments across the country in past years to help bring attention to the issue of smoking in the movies and the importance of protecting America's children from pro-tobacco messaging and images in feature films.

Smoking in Movies Increases Adolescent Smoking: A Review included a literary review of 42 studies that were published from 1994 to 2005. The studies were used based on a search of health, psychology and social science databases for articles on smoking in the movies.

The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns, research, public relations, and outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco. The foundation's national programs include Circle of Friends(R), Great Start(R), a Priority Populations Initiative, Streetheory(R) and truth(R). The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.

(1) Pechmann C, Shih C. Smoking scenes in movies and antismoking

advertisements before movies: effects on youth. J Mark. 1999;63:1-13

Source: American Legacy Foundation

CONTACT: Julia Cartwright for American Legacy Foundation,
+1-202-454-5596

Web site: http://www.americanlegacy.org/

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