Smoking in films encourages teens to smoke

SAN DIEGO, June 29 (UPI) -- Teenage girls are more likely to start smoking if they see their favorite movie stars puffing away on-screen, a U.S. study had found.

Researchers at the University of California-San Diego surveyed 3,000 girls, ages 12-15, who had never smoked, asking them to name their favorite movie stars. Girls whose favorite actors or actresses smoked while acting parts onscreen were 80 percent more likely to smoke within the following three years.

Favorite movie stars among girls included Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Winona Ryder, Demi Moore and Drew Barrymore.

"Our results were very strong, showing that if the movie stars smoke, especially in romance films, they are effectively encouraging young girls to smoke," John Pierce, director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at UCSD, said in a statement.

The researchers found boys' decisions to smoke were not influenced nearly as much by on-screen smoking, which Pierce said might be due to movie genre preferences, since boys tend to prefer action films.