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AAFP, ACOG, public health groups call for R-rating on films that portray smoking
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Seventeen public health and medical organizations have urged the American film industry to apply an R rating to all films that include depictions of smoking or other tobacco use.
In a joint letter signed by the AAFP, and the American Congress on Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among others, the coalition requested that the film industry meet a June 1, 2018 deadline to stop the portrayal of tobacco products in youth-rated films.
“[We demand] the film industry take a very clear and necessary action to help protect one of our most vulnerable populations. Nicotine exposure harms children from conception onward, and tobacco continues to be a major health threat to both young people and adults,” John Meigs, Jr. MD, AAFP president, said in a press release. “As family physicians, we see the dangerous effects of tobacco use in patients throughout the entire lifespan and will continue to work tirelessly to save lives by eliminating tobacco use and reducing the exposure to tobacco related imagery that has been shown to increase the risk for tobacco use.”
In an MMWR report released on July 7, researchers with the CDC demonstrated that despite significant declines in tobacco depiction in youth-rated films from 2005-2010, progress toward elimination of tobacco depictions flatlined after 2010. Although depictions of tobacco use are currently uncommon in G- and PG-rated films, the researchers observed a 43% increase in the total number of tobacco-use incidents in PG-13-rated films over the previous 6 years.
“As the leading health care providers for women, ob-gyns see the deadly effects tobacco has on women through all stages of life. In recent years, many flavors of cigarettes, cigars and other forms of tobacco have been made available and marketed primarily to young and minority users,” Haywood L. Brown, president, The American Congress on Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in the statement. “Compared with women who are nonsmokers, women who smoke cigarettes have greater risks of reproductive health problems, many forms of gynecologic cancer and other types of cancer, coronary and vascular disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, osteoporosis and possible poor future birth outcomes. We urge the motion picture industry to take smoking out of youth-related movies and stop targeting young people.”
The revised R-rating guidelines, as outlined by the coalition, would apply to all films that depict smoking, with the exception of those that “exclusively portray actual people who used tobacco (as in documentaries or biographical dramas) or that depict the serious health consequences of tobacco use.”
Some of the other medical groups signing the letter include the ACP and AMA.
“Glamorizing smoking on television and in movies influences young persons to smoke and is at odds with anti-smoking efforts that are so critical for the health of our nation,” Jack Ende, MD, president of the ACP, said in the release. “ACP, therefore, encourages the television, motion picture and media industries to join with the medical community in recognizing this problem and taking whatever steps are needed to limit this hazardous exposure.”
“We urge the motion picture industry to listen to the collective plea of the nation’s physicians and once and for all apply an ‘R’ rating to films depicting cigarette smoking to help keep lethal, addictive tobacco products out of the hands of young people,” David O. Barbe, MD, president of the AMA, said in the release. “We will continue to advocate for more stringent policies and support efforts to protect our nation’s youth from the dangers caused by tobacco use.”
Reference: Tynan MA, et al. MMWR. 2017; doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6626a1.
Disclosure: Meigs is president of AAFP; Brown is president of The American Congress on Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Ende is president of ACP; Barbe is president of AMA.