Tobacco.org

• 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 (鍾起惠) said.

Several movies that have topped box office sales contain scenes with characters smoking, including Cape No. 7 (海角七號), Lust, Caution (色戒), Kung Fu Hustle (? and Shaolin Soccer (少林足球), 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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