Images of smoking appear more in youth-rated movies than in R-rated films, a new study found. Young people, who naturally look to movies for role models, are highly influenced to smoke by these images. Between 1996 and 2004, youth-rated films contained 56 percent of all smoking depictions in every years top 100 box-office hits. Portrayals of smoking were found in a total of 75 percent of youth films and 90 percent of R-rated films.

In a 2005 report, youth who watched the most movies depicting cigarette smoking were three times more likely to smoke themselves-- with 38 percent of all teen smoking traceable to these filmic influences. One-third to one-half of youth who experiment with cigarettes will eventually adopt a daily habit -- and one in three of these kids will die a tobacco-related death in adulthood, such as heart disease or lung cancer. With these kinds of statistics, it's hard to argue that images of smoking have no negative impact on public health. Even now that I'm a fairly well-adjusted non-smoker, and well into adulthood -- seeing anyone smoke on TV or in movies immediately gives me a craving.

Many solutions have been proposed -- from eliminating images of tobacco use from movies entirely, to giving all films depicting smoking an R-rating, and adding tobacco health warnings to the previews before any film containing these images. Some filmmakers argue that prohibiting the use of tobacco-related images is censorship -- and that the ratings board is in place to help parents decipher what is appropriate for their children to watch.