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Research letter
Unregulated hazards to young people: smoking in films
  1. Yao-Mao Chang1,
  2. Bradley Chen2
  1. 1College of Public Health, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. 2Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Yao-Mao Chang, College of Public Health, College of Management, Taipei Medical University; 250 Wuxing St. Taipei 11031, Taiwan; yaomaoc{at}gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053386

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    In February, the WHO issued its latest Smoke-Free Movies report and urged governments to rate movies that feature tobacco use as adult content.1 Smoking acquisition typically begins at a young age. For this population, studies have shown that smoking imagery in the popular media, specifically, scenes of tobacco use in films are a prevalent and potent risk factor for smoking initiation across countries.2–6

    Current tobacco control legislations may not be adequate in protecting adolescents and young adults from being exposed to smoking imagery in films. For example, Taiwan implemented the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (THPA) in 1997, which states that ‘smoking imagery in movies shall not be particularly emphasised’. The act eliminated many forms of advertising but included no enforceable policy for smoking in movies.

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    Footnotes

    • Y-MC and BC contributed equally.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.