Health proponents want cigarettes filtered out of movies

What do the feature films A Christmas Carol, Armored and The Blind Side currently circulating have in common?
They’re among an increasing number of movies that feature scenes of smoking, which is making a comeback on silver screens across North America, health officials warn.
“It’s becoming more prevalent,” Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health division manager Shawn Zentner says. Concerned it’s having an undue influence on viewers, he’s worried the more exposed a person is to smoking, “the more likely you are to take up the habit.”
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada research director Neil Collishaw said he suspects it’s more than coincidence that tobacco companies are seeing their products reaching broad audiences.
“I would like to get to the bottom of what’s really going on,” he said.
Health boards, meanwhile, aren’t waiting to find out why.
On Friday, they concluded a pilot “Don’t be a Target” program that on Nov. 30 began alerting the public through short warning clips aired before movies at area theatres, including Galaxy Cinemas in Guelph and Orangeville.
Zentner said the seven health boards in central-western Ontario involved are now evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign, and may run a version again in the coming year.
“We would like to continue with some sort of presence (in movie houses).”
Collishaw praised Zentner’s board for being proactive in fighting the influence of onscreen smoking.
“It would be perfectly appropriate for the local group to try to counter this,” he said.
Zentner said movie portrayals of smokers are misleading, suggesting glamorous lifestyles without adverse health consequences, as well as implying smoking is much more common among people than is the case in real life.
Taking a broader view, Collishaw said there are several remedies to onscreen depictions of smoking proposed. There’s a California group suggesting movies with gratuitous portrayals should get an ‘R’ or ‘Restricted’ rating so youths can’t see them. India is also exploring an outright ban on these depictions.
Collishaw said he hasn’t yet concluded which is the best way to get cigarettes off screens.
But Zentner is intrigued by a ban.“Certainly, that would be something we’d endorse,” he said.