Health Groups Want Movie Industry to Stop Promoting Smoking November 15, 2002
News Summary
Several major health organizations have joined with anti-smoking advocates to urge the movie industry to take action against smoking, the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 14.Smoke Free Movies, the World Health Organization, the Los Angeles County Director of Public Health, the American Lung Association, and the American Medical Association are calling on Hollywood moviemakers to end the promotion of smoking in movies.
According to Kori Titus, director of anti-smoking programs for the American Lung Association, 92 percent of PG-13 films currently in theaters feature smoking.
Several studies have shown that smoking in the movies is linked to an increase in youth smoking.
The coalition of health organizations called on the industry to rate a film R if it depicts smoking without showing the consequences; eliminate identification of tobacco brands; run anti-tobacco ads before films that contain any tobacco presence, regardless of rating; and verify, through on-screen credits, that nobody on a production accepted anything of value from a tobacco company or its agents.
"This is a serious problem and this is a reasonable solution within the existing framework of self-regulation by the movie industry," said Stanton Glantz of Smoke Free Movies.
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