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Cigarette smoke may have been banished from public spaces across most of America but not, it seems, from cinemas, at least when it comes to the actors on the screen.
New studies show that in spite of ongoing pressure on Hollywood from health groups to quit the nicotine habit, cigarette smoking now shows up in more films than at any time since the classic black and white romance epics of the 1950s, when a swirl of smoke in the air suggested sultry, not heart disease.
The Harvard School of Public Health asserts in a new survey that the 50 top-grossing films over a 12-month period showed 12.8 incidents of smoking per hour of running time, the highest rate in 10 years.
The smoky statistics have spurred the Harvard School to renew a campaign to lobby studios and the Motion Picture Association of America to take new steps to exorcise smoking from scripts, particularly when it comes to films accessible to young audiences.
It is using as additional ammunition studies published recently by the Lancet and Pediatrics, both medical journals, suggesting that the impact on young people is palpable.
The research shows that children as young as 10 who see people lighting up on screen are 2.7 times more likely to begin smoking themselves.
In a presentation to the studio heads, Harry Bloom, the Dean of the Harvard School, questioned why the current rating system takes account of things like bad language but not smoking, which has long been linked to fatal disease. "We're in the business of preventing disease," he said. "No one has died from hearing the f-word," Mr Bloom added.
"But 438,000 people in the US, and five million worldwide, die each year from tobacco-related illness.
"We appreciate that movies are expensive, complex and demanding to make. If you are honest I think you will admit that most smoking in movies is both unnecessary and cliched, and serves to make smoking socially acceptable to kids."
The Harvard School has a track record of effective public health and safety campaigns and is remembered most for introducing, in the 1980s, the notion of designated drivers among friends who go out drinking.
It persuaded television producers to incorporate the new slogan in prime time shows - including the iconic soap Cheers - and drink-driving fatalities fell 25 per cent in the US over three years.
Getting Hollywood similarly to promote non-smoking lifestyles in films has proven a tougher sell.
However, among recent films where producers have actively kept cigarettes off-camera was the 2006 hit The Devil Wears Prada. Other groups are joining with the Harvard School in lobbying Hollywood including the American Medical Association.
In a separate move, 41 State Attorneys General have recently signed a letter asking for public service ads to be included at the beginning of films on DVD that depict smoking.
- Independent
