Published 7 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a713
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a713

News

BMA calls for ban on smoking images that "keep the habit cool" among children

Zosia Kmietowicz

1 Edinburgh

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The BMA has called on the UK governments to introduce a raft of tough measures to protect young people from the positive images of smoking seen regularly in films and magazines and on television.

Film censors should have to take account of a movie’s pro-smoking content when deciding on its classification, the BMA recommends. And it should be a legal requirement that all films and television programmes that portray positive images of smoking be preceded by an advertisement against smoking.

The BMA believes that these and other policies could help to make the United Kingdom free of tobacco by 2035.

Most people who smoke start before the age of 18, and virtually all smokers start by the age 25, which makes young people a key target in the tobacco industry’s marketing strategies, says the BMA’s report on the influence of smoking imagery on young people.

It blames the fact that . . . [Full text of this article]


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