Influence of Smoking depicted in movies, on teens

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 6000 children under the age of 18 try their first cigarette each day and half of them take to smoking regularly. Efforts to reduce this have met with little progress. Researchers have established a link between the amount of cigarette smoking children see in films and their decision to try smoking A study published in The Lancet illustrates how watching television or movies depicting actors who smoke negatively impacts youth behavior? Research conducted at Dartmouth College has found that viewing smoking in the movies tripled the odds that a teen would try smoking. What's more, when non-smoking teens saw their favorite stars frequently smoke on screen they are sixteen times more likely to harbor aspirations towards smoking in the future. All this has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify smoking in the movies as an important factor encouraging teen smoking.

Numerous representations have been made to the entertainment industry to stop the usage of smoking scenes especially in movies targeted at children and adolescents The tobacco industry seems to be using used movies to promote its products to generations of teenagers. It has been successfully using movies to depict smoking as both glamorous and rebellious. It has used movie heroes to endorse their products. Young people who see smoking in movies are more likely to smoke. Tobacco industry documents reveal that smoking in movies is one of the most powerful influences in encouraging tobacco use.

Among young people, the short-term health effects of smoking include damage to the respiratory system, poor fitness, addiction to nicotine, and the risk of other drug use Students who smoke are more likely to use other drugs, get in fights, carry weapons, attempt suicide, and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors. Long-term consequences of smoking are the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.

Nicotine is a poison and in large doses can kill a person by stopping their breathing muscles. The resting heart rate for young smokers increases 2 to 3 beats per minute. It also lowers skin temperature and reduces blood flow in the legs and feet. Nicotine plays an important role in increasing smokers' risk of heart disease and stroke.

Studies show that when young people become cigarette smokers they are more likely to become addicted. They are also more likely to suffer from health problems caused by cigarette smoking. Smoking causes almost 90% of lung cancers. Smoking also causes cancers of the larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), and esophagus, and contributes to the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemia. Cigarette smoking causes several lung diseases that can be just as dangerous as lung cancer. Chronic bronchitis - a disease where the airways produce excess mucus, which forces the smoker to cough more often - is a common ailment of smokers. Cigarette smoking is also the major cause of emphysema - a disease that slowly destroys a person's ability to breathe.

There is an urgent need for an international campaign urging the entertainment industry to eliminate smoking in the movies. Movies should not be used to promote a product that eventually kills more than half of its regular users. It could then be left to parents to talk to their children about the health risks of tobacco and set a good example for their children by not smoking themselves. School-based tobacco education programs would also be effective in reducing the onset of teen smoking.