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Excerpts from: Study links youth smoking to movies [11/11/00]

                    By The Associated Press

                    The Dartmouth Medical School study looked at
                    603 movies from 1988 to 1999 and gauged the
                    level of smoking in each. Researchers then
                    surveyed 5,500 middle schoolers in New
                    Hampshire and Vermont to see if the movies
                    affected their smoking habits.

                    “Smoking is just one of the behaviors that kids
                    are more likely to adopt from watching their
                    favorite actors in movies,” said Dr. Madeline
                    Dalton, an assistant professor of pediatrics
                    involved in the study.

                    She added, “Kids look to the media to know
                    what is cool. If they see actors smoking, that’s
                    all part of the package.”

                   Children surveyed said some of the actors they
                    saw smoking often in movies are Leonardo
                    DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Brad
                    Pitt.

                    “There’s some evidence that tobacco use in
                    movies made for adults may have more salience
                    in adolescents,” Dalton said. “Parents need to
                    know it might affect their kids’ behavior.”

                    The study looked at the children’s attitude and
                    behavior toward smoking. Dartmouth
                    researchers are seeking another grant to follow
                    children around for four years to see if they
                    start smoking after seeing a movie or if it only
                    affects their amount of smoking.

                    “Children viewing movies will frequently be
                    exposed to tobacco use as normative and even
                    glamorized behaviors,” said Dr. James Sargent,
                    the study’s lead researcher.

                   Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the
                    University of California at San Francisco, said he
                    has found that the amount of smoking in
                    movies has increased the last decade after
                    declining in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.