According to a research from the UK, smoking is taken up by teenagers who watch films showing actors smoking.

An attempt should be made to avoid under-18s getting exposed to smoking. Questions were asked to about 5000 teenagers who were 15 years of age and it was stated that film certification should undergo changes so that smoking scenes are not seen by under-18s.

The need of the hour is a precautionary approach, according to the Bristol University investigators. Campaigners who are pro-smoking find no logic in this.

According to them, no study has ever stated that what effect does cinema or DVDs have on the minds of people.

There were films released between 2001 and 2005 and these were taken into consideration and these were movies that depicted smoking like Spider-Man, Bridget Jones and The Matrix.

There were 73 per cent chances of taking up smoking among adolescents who saw the most films depicting smoking as compared to those who were away from smoking movie scenes.

Dr Andrea Waylen, who led the research, said, “We saw a linear relationship between adolescent smoking and the number of films they had seen depicting smoking. More than half of the films shown in the UK that contain smoking are rated UK15 or below, so children and young teenagers are clearly exposed.”