Popcorn and Cigarettes? Smoking in Movies

Maybe they should call it fourth-hand smoking. While Hollywood has reduced smoking in films aimed at younger audiences, parents can't be certain kids won't be exposed to onscreen cigarette or cigar puffing, even with PG-rated or animated movies. Experts share the facts here about onscreen tobacco use and how to keep your kids from emulating characters who smoke.

[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health.]

While youth smoking rates keep dropping, a substantial number of teens still smoke, says Dr. David Hill, chairman for the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and Media. "We know that if people don't initiate tobacco use while they're children or teenagers, they almost never do so in adulthood," says Hill, who practices at KidzCare Pediatrics in Wilmington, North Carolina. "Essentially, if they don't catch you by age 19, they're probably not going to get you."

That's why smoking in movies for kids, who are impressionable, really matters. "We also know that the normalization of tobacco use in movies does have a strong impact on a child's risk of future tobacco use," Hill says. "We know that there's a dose-dependent effect between exposure to tobacco use in movies and television shows and a child's subsequent risk of tobacco use."

Researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have analyzed youth smoking and what motivates it from several perspectives, including the music kids hear and the movies they see. The bottom line: Adolescents who see lots of smoking on the big screen are more likely than others to light up themselves.

The Motion Picture Association of American offers a smoking label for some movies that contain smoking. "Some" is the key word, says Jonathan Polansky, a consultant to the smoke-free movies initiative at the University of California–San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. The vast majority of top-grossing youth-rated movies with smoking don't carry any such label.

Since December 2016, three major film studios have named new top executives, according to a Thursday email from Stanton Glantz, director of the UCSF center on tobacco research. "History shows that smoking rebounds at major studios distracted by leadership changes," he says. "All MPAA-membership studios have policies about tobacco depictions in their youth-rated films. But enforcement depends on who's in charge." The group is pushing for an industry-wide R rating for all movies with smoking.

In its latest fact sheet on smoking in the movies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing UCSF center figures, notes that of the top-grossing PG-13 movies, nearly 60 percent showed smoking or other tobacco use. Between 2002 and 2015, an increasing proportion of youth-rated movies (G, PG or PG-13) were smoke-free. On the other hand, among the movies that showed any smoking, the average number of "tobacco incidents" increased.

Although it's trendy, vaping hasn't had a significant presence in recent studio productions, Polansky says. "The promotion of e-cigarettes in movies has not really taken off as some have feared," he says. A too-crass early approach to pushing product placement by manufacturers might have made studios nervous, he suggests, or it may simply be that as screens shrink, cigarettes and cigars are considered more visible and evocative as props than vaping devices.

[See: 9 Ways Watching TV Can Shorten or Ruin Your Life.]

As a parent, here's how you can reduce the impact of silver- and small-screen smoking on kids:

Check movies out in advance. What's playing at theaters this week? If your kids want to see "Beauty and the Beast," "The Shack," "The Belko Experiment" or "Hidden Figures," you can breathe easy: Each has earned a pink-lung rating on the SceneSmoking website, hosted by Breathe California of Sacramento – Emigrant Trails, which advocates for clean air and lung health. However, R-rated "Get Out," garners a gray lung rating. And although it's a PG-13 movie, "Kong: Skull Island" rates a black lung on the SceneSmoking site.

Renting instead? "Passengers," "Collateral Beauty" and "Moana" are smoke-free. Academy award-winning "Moonlight" gets a gray lung, while R-rated "Jackie" and "Allied" fall into the black-lung category. The lung-color rankings, on a best-worst scale of pink/light gray/dark gray/black, are based on four criteria: the amount of smoking in a movie, who does it, where it takes place and the perceived message.

The ratings are part of the website's Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! project, which gathers and shares weekly details on tobacco content of every top-grossing film. Parents can also search an extensive database of other movies to learn details including the studio involved and perceived messages about tobacco – whether cigarette or cigar use is portrayed as sexy, part of a celebration, related to wealth and power, a sign of rebellion or associated with tension and stress.

Don't take "G" and "PG" ratings as guarantees. One misconception, Hill says, is: "If I choose a safe medium, like a G- or PG-rated move, nobody's going to be smoking." That's not necessarily so, he explains. "Smoking is really convenient way to paint a character in a movie. It's also a really convenient thing for an actor to do with his or her hands. So it creeps into places where you really wouldn't expect it." He recalls enjoying the 2011 animated film "Rango," starring a gecko. "However, a shocking number of characters in that movie were shown smoking in various ways," he says. Following a "small dustup" from consumer groups, Hill believes studios are becoming more cognizant of the issue.

Do take "R" ratings seriously. While the MPAA rating system isn't perfect, it helps. "If parents are having a hard time regulating what their kids watch, I certainly recommend that parents take the "R" rating seriously, because "R" moves have about twice as much smoking as PG-13 movies," Polansky says. Ideally, he adds, "The best thing parents can do is get involved in turning off the faucet on tobacco promotion onscreen, period."

Question creative license. As a media expert and pediatrician, Hill has heard the argument that if only shady characters smoke onscreen, then it's OK. "Another false premise is: 'Well, if it's only the bad guys who smoke, or drink or use drugs, or practice violence, then my kid won't want to emulate that,'" he says. "However, what do kids want to emulate more than the bad guys? Those are the coolest characters. So it doesn't really matter that it's just the bad guys who are smoking. The more smoking they see, the higher risk [kids] are at."

Talk about onscreen behaviors. While movies for kids send ambiguous smoking messages, you can provide clarity. "This is a place where parental guidance can really be mitigating," Hill says. For smoking and other high-risk health behaviors – such as drinking, drug use and unprotected sex – he says, "The impact on children when they see these things in the media can be dampened by having great conversations with their parents." If you're watching at home, he says, feel free to press the pause button at any time.

[See: 7 Things You Didn't Know About Lung Cancer.]

Educate kids on smoking's harms. Keeping it age-appropriate, talk to kids about ways smoking can affect their lungs and cause cancer and other diseases. Also, help them understand that the way smoking is portrayed in movies – without any health consequences – is unrealistic. Tell them you don't want them to smoke. For older adolescents, Polansky says, "They should know the history of paid product placement and maneuvers the tobacco industry has used to exploit kids." You can point kids to Truth Tobacco Industry Documents online, an amazing collection of 14 million previously secret documents created by tobacco companies about their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, scientific research and more.

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