Smoking: Should youth-oriented film and TV stop showing it?
- August 20, 2010 10:05 AM |
- By POV
By CBC News
A Canadian doctors' group wants the government to stop subsidizing movie productions that depict smoking in films aimed at children and teens.
Over the past five years, provinces and the federal government granted a quarter of a billion dollars to fund Hollywood productions intended for young audiences that featured smoking, according to a study released Thursday by Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
"Studies worldwide show smoking in movies is one of the most powerful recruiters of young people into lifelong tobacco addiction," said Neil Collishaw, the group's research director.
Every dollar in film subsidies may in the end cost Canada $1.70 in societal tobacco losses, the group said.
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