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24 State Attorney Generals Ask Hollywood to Reduce Smoking in Movies [08/27-2]

Excerpts from: Attorneys general call on MPAA to reduce smoking in movies

By TIM MOLLOY Associated Press [08/26/03]

The attorneys general of 24 states sent a letter Tuesday to Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti saying the industry should reduce the amount of smoking in films to prevent teens from taking up the habit.

The attorneys cited a June study from Dartmouth Medical School that said children who watch movies in which actors smoke heavily are three times more likely to smoke themselves than those exposed to less smoking on-screen.

We're not saying any law has been broken," said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, one of the officials who signed the letter. "We're just asking out of a concern for the health of our kids that the industry do what it can to ensure that kids don't start smoking."
Sargent said smoking was more harmful than the violence, language and sexual content children that typically earns films the R rating.

Investigators counted the number of times smoking was depicted and determined how many smoking incidents each of the adolescents had seen. Exposure was categorized into four groups, with the lowest level involving between zero and 531 occurrences of smoking and the highest involving between 1,665 and 5,308 incidents.

Twenty-two of those exposed to the least on-screen smoking took up the habit, compared with 107 in the highest exposure group -- a fivefold difference

The researchers also concluded 52 percent of the startup in smoking could be attributed to the movies.

The letter to Valenti was signed by the attorneys general of Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands




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