Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) claim that Hollywood portrayals of smoking lead to billions of dollars in sales for tobacco companies.

Researcher Stanton Glantz of UCSF's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education estimated that smoking in movies helps recruit 390,000 new teenage smokers every year, who over their lifetime generate $4.1 billion in sales and $894 million in profits for tobacco companies.

"Film is the single biggest recruiter of new young smokers," claimed Glantz. "Either Hollywood studios still get paid off, which is corrupt, or else studio-owners ... are pumping up tobacco industry profits for free, which is stupid."

Glantz and others have called on the Motion Picture Association of America to include tobacco use in movie ratings.

The research was published in the April 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Alamar, B., & Glantz, S. (2006). Tobacco Industry Profits From Smoking Images in the Movies. Pediatrics, 117(4): 1462.