Anti-Smoking Ads Urged for DVDs

Maryland Official Presses Film Studios

J. JOSEPH CURRAN JR. (By Roberto Borea -- Associated Press)

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and his counterparts across the nation are asking Hollywood's major studios to couple any depictions of smoking in movies with anti-smoking ads on the recordings they release.

Curran (D), who has led the charge for many years, collected signatures from 31 other attorneys general, from Hawaii to Maine, for letters he sent to nine major studios last month.

The letters are the latest effort by the top law enforcement officials, who in past years have flown to Los Angeles to meet with directors and studio heads, testified before Congress, pressured theater owners and brought researchers before the Motion Picture Association of America.

Their efforts were boosted this month by a Dartmouth Medical School study showing that teenagers who watch movies depicting smoking are more likely to try it.

The study also prompted a letter from the National Parent Teacher Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association and American Medical Association.

"The Dartmouth study is a big deal," Curran said. "It documents the problem. It's proof."

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and published in the Nov. 7 issue of Pediatrics, surveyed 6,522 children ages 10 to 14 and found that one-third who began smoking did so because of exposure to it through movies.

Among the study's suggestions were the anti-smoking previews.

The American Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization established as part of a 1999 tobacco industry settlement, has begun talks with theater owners to put such public service announcements in theaters.

In his letter, Curran suggests putting ads produced by American Legacy on DVDs.

American Legacy has scripts for five ads but has yet to film them, said President Cheryl G. Healton.

"The issue is extraordinarily complicated politically," she said. "There's just an apparent lack of interest in the industry. We'll just keep pushing on multiple fronts and hope for a breakthrough somewhere."