Washington, DC -- Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti announced today that he has asked Hollywood's major motion picture studios1 to insert anti-smoking public service announcements in all DVDs, videos, and other newer home viewing formats of movies in which smoking is depicted. General Spagnoletti's letter also is signed by 31 other Attorneys General.2
General Spagnoletti's letter is prompted by the November 7, 2005, publication of the most recent study to find that adolescents with the greatest exposure to depictions of smoking in movies were almost three times more likely to try smoking than their peers in the least exposed group, even after controlling for other known smoking initiation factors. The study, which appeared in the journal, Pediatrics, and was conducted by the Dartmouth Medical School with National Cancer Institute funding, is the first to determine the effects of viewing smoking in movies on a nationally representative sample of youth in the United States.
1 Letters were sent on November 14, 2005, to Paramount Pictures, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Brothers Studios
2 Maryland, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.