Health
Smoking deserves an "R" rating
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 5, 2004
Movies showing the use of cigarettes and other forms of tobacco should get an "R" rating, according to policy adopted last month by the American Medical Association's House of Delegates.
Physicians supporting the action argued that "R" ratings on the basis of sex, nudity or violence have long discouraged young people from seeing films with these types of content. Meanwhile, smoking, which is also generally viewed as an adult activity, appears to be more and more pervasive in movies of all ratings. The hope is that tobacco use in movies would decrease, and that what smoking there is would only be seen by adults.
"Smoking in the movies has increased dramatically," said Stephen L. Hansen, MD, coordinator of the AMA's Tobacco Control Coalition. "It's very damaging to our young people."
In related action, the AMA urged that the sale of tobacco products be restricted to specialty stores, and it wants to work with the gaming industry to ban smoking in casinos and other venues. The AMA will also advocate for a national smoking-cessation quit-line network and wants to raise the profile of the Office of Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/05/hlbf0705.htm.
