Recent scientific studies indicate a direct correlation between the depiction of smoking in movies and the initiation of smoking by adolescents. As You Sow is taking action to cut adolescent smoking by pushing film companies to reduce smoking in youth films.

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Dartmouth Medical School, Journal of Pediatrics, University of California-San Diego, and the Harvard School of Public Health have found that teens viewing smoking in movies are more likely to start smoking, as well as a huge increase of "tobacco impressions" in PG and PG-13 rated films.

Hollywood is a powerful channel for promoting tobacco addiction to adolescents. A public health expert estimates that at least half of all new young smokers - 390,000 every year - are recruited by smoking in films. Ultimately, 100,000 of each year's recruits will die from tobacco-related disease. This toll from kids' exposure to smoking on screen will exceed all current annual U.S. deaths from murder, suicide, illegal drug use, drunk driving and HIV/AIDS combined.

As You Sow is leading a shareholder effort that has asked senior management at Disney, Time-Warner, Viacom (Paramount) and General Electric (Universal) to address this issue. The nation's leading medical organizations are endorsing four actions to help to resolve this problem:

This issue is particularly important for pensions funds and Socially Responsible Investors (SRI) - nearly 80% of which screen out tobacco companies. As You Sow held a special briefing for SRI Analysts who now must decide if media companies could violate their tobacco screens.

Resources
American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is a voluntary health organization aiming to prevent lung disease and promote lung health. They are part of a group of concerned organizations calling on film producers to R rate movies showing characters using tobacco products.

American Medical Association
The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional and public health issues. They are part of a group of concerned organizations calling on film producers to R rate movies showing characters using tobacco products.

Smoke Free Movies
Smoke Free Movies is a project of the University of California, San Francisco that identifies the link between tobacco advertising and movie production and seeks to protect the health of teens by reducing smoking in movies.