Building evidence and support for a strategy to counter smoking images in movies.

An increasing body of research indicates that the attractive portrayal of smoking in movies is a factor in the uptake of smoking by young people. Indeed, a recent study by Sargent et al suggests that in the United States, exposure to movie smoking is the primary independent risk factor for smoking initiation in adolescents aged 10 to 14 years, accounting for smoking initiation in more than one third of this group.