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• TAIWAN: Media guilty of promoting smoking, research study says 

The media may be guilty of promoting smoking among young people, with many cartoons ranking among the top television programs that show characters smoking, a recent study found.

The study on cigarettes and smoking conducted by the Bureau of Health Promotion monitored various types of television programs, television news, movies, magazines, marketing events and electronic games between July and September. The results showed that cigarette smoking scenes showed up an average of 12.55 times in movies this year. This is 20 to 26 times as much media exposure as in television shows, National Communications Commission commissioner Chung Chi-hui said.

Several movies that have topped box office sales contain scenes with characters smoking, including Cape No. 7, Lust, Caution, Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, she said.

From 1999 to last year, 171, or 73 percent, of movies and television programming produced by the Walt Disney Company or one of its divisions contained smoking scenes, the study showed.

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LETTER: Soft soap on smoking  

Like thousands of other smokers, I now have to stand out in the wind and rain to have a cigarette as we are no longer allowed to smoke in pubs or cafes.

The government already has a helpline to help people stop smoking. Now it is planning to make shops put cigarettes under the counter and out of sight, to help prevent our young people taking up the habit.

I can understand all this and I am in full agreement with it, if it prevents people smoking and as a result saves them from dying of cancer.

What I can't understand is how the government allows young people to be shown smoking in TV soaps.

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The Digital Ramble | Le Smoking  

LIFE magazine made millions of photos available this week — most never before published — through Google image search, and I got digging. Cigarettes turn up everywhere: with Sophia Loren between takes, with Eisenhower after a parade. But it’s tough to enjoy that world-war-era cool when there’s this two-year-old smoking in your face. “Le smoking,” as a phrase, has a bit more of the glamour and sex I sought, even if it only means “tuxedo.” These 1954 backstage fashion-show pictures capture the mood, as does the photo blog “Le Smoking,” which stockpiles photos of people smoking — it’s edgy living meets tobacco, one clichéd plate at a time. . . .

Lots of my friends, though, were addicted to only one thing in 2008: Mad Men, a show starring cigarettes in supporting roles.

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Study: Media Responsible For Childhood Health, Safety Risks  

A new "study of studies" lays partial blame for a number of childhood health and safety risks at the doorstep of the media, all kinds of media, and recommends policymakers restrict ads, promote media education, among other steps. . . .

The exclusion of advertising seemed curious since one of the conclusions from the study was to restrict advertising.

The review concluded that since 1980, 80% of the 173 studies "concluded that increased media exposure was associated with a negative health outcome," with the greatest impact coming on childhood obesity, tobacco use and sexual behavior. In addition to those three, the studies looked at drug use, alchohol use, low academic achievement, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. . . .

The "expert panel" review of the studies (by the Yale University School of Medicine, NIH and the California Pacific Medial Center) comes as Democrats prepare to take over the White House as well as strengthened majorities in both houses of Congress.

This study and other recently-issued studies linking media and behavior could provide ammunition for newly empowered Democrats. That includes Jay Rockefeller, a strong critic of the media's impact on kids

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Report Ties Children's Use of Media to Their Health 

The National Institutes of Health and a nonprofit advocacy group, Common Sense Media, have another reason for President-elect Barack Obama to keep urging parents to "turn off the TV."

In what researchers call the first report of its kind, a review of 173 studies about the effects of media consumption on children asserts that a strong correlation exists between greater exposure and adverse health outcomes. . . .

Dr. Emanuel, Mr. Steyer and others plan to brief Washington policy makers on the study on Tuesday. Joined by researchers at Yale University and California Pacific Medical Center, Dr. Emanuel's team analyzed almost 1,800 studies . . .

In a clear majority of those studies more time with television, films, video games, magazines, music and the Internet was linked to rises in childhood obesity, tobacco use and sexual behavior.

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Lots of TV and Web harms kids' health 

Spending a lot of time watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Web makes children more prone to a range of health problems including obesity and smoking, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

U.S. National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Center experts analyzed 173 studies done since 1980 in one of the most comprehensive assessments to date on how exposure to media sources impacts the physical health of children and adolescents.

The studies, most conducted in the United States, largely focused on television, but some looked at video games, films, music, and computer and Internet use. Three quarters of them found that increased media viewing was associated with negative health outcomes.

The studies offered strong evidence that children who get more media exposure are more likely to become obese, start smoking and begin earlier sexual activity than those who spend less time in front of a screen, the researchers said.

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Report: Mass media harms kids  

Parents and policymakers need to take action to protect children from being harmed by TV, the Internet and other types of media, a report says.

Researchers have done individual studies for years to learn how media affect children. A review released today, which analyzed 173 of the strongest papers over 28 years, finds that 80% agree that heavy media exposure increases the risk of harm, including obesity, smoking, sex, drug and alcohol use, attention problems and poor grades. . . .

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• Media Bombardment Is Linked to Ill Effects During Childhood 

In a detailed look at nearly 30 years of research on how television, music, movies and other media affect the lives of children and adolescents, a new study released today found an array of negative health effects linked to greater use.

The report found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use. . . .

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University said they were surprised that so many studies pointed in the same direction. In all, 173 research efforts, going back to 1980, were analyzed, rated and brought together in what the researchers said was the first comprehensive view of the topic. About 80 percent of the studies showed a link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content.

"We need to factor that in as we consider our social policies and as parents think about how they raise their kids," said lead researcher Ezekiel J. Emanuel, director of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, which took on the project with the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media. "We tend not to think of this as a health issue, and it is a health issue."

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Shameless mocks smoking laws 

Shameless layabout Frank Gallagher flouts the smoking ban in the new series of the Manchester drama, which returns to our screens in January.

Series six of Shameless sees a boycott of the local boozer by the Chatsworth Estate residents because of the smoking laws.

So staff decide to let the customers smoke in the pub rather than face financial ruin.

Other controversial storylines tackled in the new series include benefit fraud, brothels, stints in jail and stings gone wrong, fake suicides, cold turkey, joyriding, lesbian romps and lingerie parties.

The show has just won Best Continuing Drama for the second year running at the RTS North West Awards and actor Sean Gilder won Best Performance in a Continuing Drama for his role of Paddy Maguire.

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• Kid Rock Gives TRL a Smoking Send-Off 

Kid Rock broke New York's strict smoking ban while bidding farewell to Mtv music show Trl on Sunday night (16Nov08) - by striding into the Times Square studio smoking a cigar.

Rock was one of a host of music's biggest stars who turned out for the final show - hosted by Carson Daly and Damien Fahey.

And he was determined to steal the show, by drinking beer and puffing on a cigar.

Rock said, "I used to come here and they would say, 'Hey, man, you've got to put the cigar out'. Well, guess what? It's over; I ain't putting the cigar out.".

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One Teen's Struggle To Quit Smoking 

Kindra Tanner, a high school student in Atlanta, started smoking when she was 13. Her mother had prohibited her from seeing an older boy she really liked, and that made her angry. One of her friends offered her a cigarette, and the relief she felt was immediate.

"They make you feel better when you first start," Kindra says. "You feel good -- refreshed, like drinking water after running all day."

Jonathan Klein, a pediatrician at the University of Rochester who studies why teens start to smoke, says stories like Kindra's are common. After a decade of decline in teen smoking, the numbers have stalled at around 20 percent of all teens. It's more important than ever, Klein says, that parents do all they can to keep their children from experimenting with tobacco.

TV Smoke Lies

It shouldn't come as a surprise that teens like Kindra are primed to see smoking as a sort of relief, Klein says. That's the image television -- one of the strongest influences in their lives -- portrays.

Klein cites the characters in television's Sex in the City as an example. "Many of them are often using a cigarette as a relaxation device," he says, "either in the context of being together and talking, or in the context of being nervous and uptight, and reaching for cigarette and drink."

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A TV in the Bedroom: Implications for Viewing Habits and Risk Behaviors During Early Adolescence  

This study examined associations between bedroom television, media use, and adolescents' health risk behaviors. A sample of 1,017 12- to 14-year-old adolescents completed computer-assisted interviews at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Among White adolescents, having a bedroom television predicted risk-promoting media use practices and significantly greater odds of initiating health risk behaviors--cigarette smoking and sexual intercourse--over 2 years. Although significantly more Black than White adolescents had a bedroom television, bedroom television was unrelated to Black adolescents' media use practices or health risk behaviors. Research is needed to understand ethnic differences in family media use and consequences for adolescent development.

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• Study: TVs in Teen's Bedroom Associated With Increased Likelihood of Smoking, Sex  

Bedroom televisions are a significant predictor of White teens engaging in smoking and sex, according to a new study by researchers at RTI International, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Middle Tennessee State University.

The study, published in the September issue of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, found that White adolescents who had a television in their bedroom were more likely to regularly view mature content television programs, have less parental oversight of their media practices, and initiate health risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking and sex.

"However, we found that those risk behaviors were offset when parents were relatively engaged with their child," said Christine Jackson, Ph.D., a social ecologist at RTI International and the study's lead author. "These findings suggest that for adolescents, access to television and interaction with parents do matter. Keeping the television out of the bedroom may help reduce unhealthy media use practices and reduce health risk behaviors."

The study showed that White adolescents who had a bedroom television were, after two years, nearly three and a half times more likely to have ever tried smoking

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• MBC rejects SR500m deal for tobacco ads 

RIYADH: The Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) — the region’s biggest and most popular television network — has made a decision to not telecast tobacco advertisements worth SR500 million, Health Minister Hamad Al-Manie said yesterday.

The minister, who was speaking at a press conference at the Health Ministry, said the decision to ban cigarette commercials on all MBC channels was conveyed to him by MBC Chairman Waleed Al-Ibrahim over the weekend.

Al-Ibrahim said tobacco companies tried to talk him out of the decision and offered to pay more money. “No matter what you do, I will not rescind my decision. No cigarette commercials will be broadcast on the MBC,” Al-Ibrahim told the companies.

Al-Manie said the MBC chairman reaffirmed the television network’s solidarity with the Health Ministry in its campaign against smoking. Al-Manie lauded MBC’s decision, adding that stamping out smoking is not only a religious duty but also a patriotic and humanitarian one.

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No matter what you do, I will not rescind my decision. No cigarette commercials will be broadcast on the MBC.
Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) Chairman Waleed Al-Ibrahim, to tobacco companies.

Doctors fired up on 'glamour' of smoking  

KEIRA Knightley in Atonement; Bruce Willis in Die Hard; Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction �?" all three have used smoking to great effect, creating enduring images of stars lighting up.

But now, in an attempt to de-glamorise tobacco, the British Medical Association (BMA) has called for the portrayal of smoking to be taken into account when classifying films.

The BMA, which is holding its annual conference in Edinburgh this week, also wants anti-smoking adverts to appear before television programmes which show people lighting up.

Images ranging from chain-smoking young people in Channel 4's Skins to Dot Cotton lighting up in EastEnders can all contribute to making cigarettes seem acceptable, several international studies suggest.

A new report by the BMA �?" Forever Cool: the Influence of Smoking Imagery on Young People �?" said that most smokers started before the age of 18, with virtually all taking up the habit before 25.

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