New York health officials have taken out full-page ads in major publications, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, urging a change in movie ratings if actors are shown smoking.

The state health department spent $800,000 US on Tuesday's publications and wants the industry to consider smoking, along with nudity and violence, when applying ratings.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines thinks cigarettes merit an "R" rating, restricting admittance to anyone under 18 years of age. 

Daines and other health advocates believe teenagers are susceptible to images of their movie heroes lighting up.

The commissioner wrote to the CEOs of six major Hollywood studios and to the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, asking them to reduce children's exposure to onscreen smoking.

Just last summer, Walt Disney Co. said it would ban smoking from all family-oriented Disney brand films in addition to discouraging smoking in films from its Touchstone and Miramax studios.

Tobacco is featured in three out of every four G, PG and PG-13 rated movies and 90 per cent of R-rated movies, according to research from the American Legacy Foundation, a non-profit created with money from tobacco litigation in the U.S.

The Motion Picture Association of America has said it was taking excessive smoking in films into consideration, flagging certain movies for "pervasive smoking."

The association said it would not go any further than that warning.

The American Medical Association has also weighed in on the issue. It backs a strict "R" rating for movies that show people smoking, especially on films aimed at the 10 to 14-year-old demographic — a time when many young people begin to smoke.

With files from the Associated Press