It is a grim fact that smoking kills 5 million people worldwide each year. ¹

That so many should die as a result of smoking is perhaps understandable given that smoking causes disease in nearly every organ of the body. ² Among these diseases are heart disease, emphysema, stroke and cancer. Smoking is a direct cause of 11 cancers. These cancers are of the lung, mouth, throat, larynx (voice box), oesophagus, cervix, bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach, and the blood. Preventing the uptake of smoking by young people is vital if future tobacco-related death and illness is to be reduced. ³

Research has found that smoking in film is a major cause of smoking uptake by young people ⁴ and that the rate of smoking in major films in the early 2000s had returned to the high levels of the 1950s . ⁵

Film is arguably the most influential media among the young. Adolescents are three times more likely to go to the movies than adults and eight out of ten new smokers are children or adolescents. ⁶

This fact sheet is intended to provide an overview of the extent of smoking in film and the historical role of the tobacco industry in promoting its product through this medium. It also sheds some light on the ways in which smoking in film encourages smoking among young people.

We hope that the resource will help to increase critical awareness among young people as well as serve as a useful information source for teachers, parents and other interested members of the community.

 

How much smoking is there in films?

The role of the tobacco industry

How do films influence young people to smoke?

Countering smoking in film

Recommended web sites

 

_________________________________________

References

 

1. World Health Organisation Tobacco Free Initiative http://www.who.int/tobacco/en/
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of
   Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004.
3. Rivara FP, Ebel BE, Garrison MM, Christakis DA, Wiehe SE, Levy DT. Prevention
   of smoking-related deaths in the United States. American Journal of Preventive
   Medicine 2004;27(2):118-125.
4. Dalton MA, Sargent JD, Beach ML, Titus-Ernstoff L, Gibson JL, Ahrens MB,
   Tickle JT, Heatherton TF. Effect of viewing smoking in movies on adolescent
   smoking initiation: a cohort study. The Lancet 2003 362(9380):26.
5. Glantz SA, Kacirk KW, McCulloch C. Back to the Future: Smoking in Movies
   in 2002 Compared with 1950 Levels. American Journal of Public Health .
   2004;94(2);261.
6. Mortimer D. Smoke-screens: Why tobacco companies are winning with the
   young. Medical Observer 20 March 1998;46-47.