Parents! Do you know that motion pictures may be hazardous to your children’s health? Onscreen tobacco use influences young people to start smoking. Recent estimates from the Center for Disease Control of youth smoking in the U.S. are alarming: every day 3,450 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 smoke their first cigarette and 850 (25%) of them become cigarette smokers. If you have not heard this warning, take comfort that anti-tobacco advocates have been mobilizing for some time.
In May 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America issued a press release that smoking would be considered in film ratings. Before every movie, the white-lettered film rating is shown against a blue background; “tobacco use” may be listed as a reason for the rating.
The movie production companies, Comcast (Universal), Disney, and Time Warner (Warner Bros.) have established anti-tobacco policies to reduce onscreen smoking. News Corp. (20th Century Fox), Sony, Viacom (Paramount), and independent movie production companies do not have anti-tobacco policies.
Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, a project of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails, evaluates the tobacco use in the top ten movies for each week. Young people are recruited and trained to watch the new movie releases and evaluate the “tobacco incidents”; the results are posted weekly to the website www.scenesmoking.com. Tobacco incidents include use or implied use of tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco) by the actors as well as product placement (such as, a pack of cigarettes on a tabletop). The movies are scored from good-to-bad using a pink, light gray, dark gray, or black lung. For example, Crazy, Stupid, Love by Warner Bros. with Steve Carell scored a pink lung.
Cowboys & Aliens scored a black lung noting 29 smoking incidents in bars, outdoors, jail cells, and around children. Two “good guys” in the movies smoked (cigarettes for one, a pipe for the other). This movie was produced by Universal, which has an anti-smoking policy; the movie may have been in production before the anti-smoking policy was in place.
Organizations have adopted plans to reduce tobacco use in motion pictures. In November 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a plan to reduce onscreen smoking, especially for films rated PG and PG-13. The plan includes supporting anti-tobacco ads before a feature film and endorsing steps to give an “R” film rating if a movie includes smoking. The World Health Organization also advocates giving an “R” rating for films with tobacco use, except for movies that portray an historical person who smoked or show the dangers of tobacco use.
Many states offer tax credits and rebates to attract movie productions. The CDC recommends that state and local health departments work with state policy makers to allow subsidies only for productions of tobacco-free movies.
A study by the National Cancer Institute has concluded that reducing onscreen tobacco use decreases the likelihood that young people will start to smoke. The CDC published in its July 2011, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report the collective effort to reduce onscreen tobacco use produced results: In 2010, onscreen smoking in G, PG, and PG-13 films decreased over 70% from 2005. The three motion picture companies with anti-tobacco policies decreased tobacco incidents in their movies on average of 96%. The motion picture companies and independents without policies decreased tobacco incidents in their movies on average of 42% from 2005.
Warning! Help stop your children from starting to smoke by checking the film rating before your children go to the movies.