3rd February, 2016
Films should be rated according to tobacco use, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO is calling on governments around the world to take "concrete steps" such introducing ratings for films with scenes depicting tobacco use and displaying tobacco use warnings before films in a bid to prevent children being introduced to tobacco products and "subsequent tobacco-related addiction, disability and death".
Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO’s Department of Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases, said film remains "one of the last channels exposing millions of adolescents to smoking imagery without restrictions".
"Smoking in films can be a strong form of promotion for tobacco products," he said, noting that the 160 parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are "obliged by international law to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship".
In the third edition of a report – Smoke-Free Movies: From Evidence to Action, the WHO said that in 2014 smoking was found in 44 per cent of all Hollywood films and 36 per cent of films rated for young people. Almost two thirds – 59 per cent – of the top-grossing films between 2002 and 2014 featured tobacco imagery.
Meanwhile tobacco imagery has also been found in top-grossing films produced in countries including Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK while in Iceland and Argentina, nine out of 10 movies contain smoking.
~ www.who.int/tobacco/publications/marketing/smoke-free-movies-third-edition/en/
– DAVID ADAMS
