The American Medical Association (AMA) Alliance, the 26,000-member grassroots arm of the AMA, along with leading public health organizations, will release results of a national survey by Mississippi State University showing the majority of adults support an R-rating for future movies that show smoking.
Every day in the United States, about 4,000 youth ages 12-17 try a cigarette for the first time. A decade of peer-reviewed research supports the conclusion that U.S. movies recruit 390,000 new adolescent smokers each year. Reducing teens? exposure to on-screen tobacco imagery will reduce recruitment and subsequent premature death from tobacco proportionately.
In the past, the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) has refused to give an R rating to movies with smoking or adopt other substantial, industry-wide policies advocated by health experts to reduce exposure. MPAA says it is waiting to hear from parents.
Amid a grassroots movement to clear tobacco imagery from future G-, PG- and R-rated films, this national poll results show public support for such measures is growing rapidly.