Fewer and fewer actors are lighting up these days … at least on the big screen.
After peaking in 2005, smoking in the top-grossing movies has declined steadily, according to a study released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.
During the past four years, the number of scenes showing smokers has decreased by half.
That's a good thing, according to the study, because scenes of movie stars smoking encourages young people to take up the habit.
That sharp drop-off was helped, no doubt, by the decision of studios such as Disney, which announced in 2007 that had banned smoking from its family films and would reduce the number of cigarettes in adult fare.
Last year, less than half of the films released showed scenes of people smoking. The percentage of smoke free films was even higher among films geared at children. Sixty percent of those films didn’t show any tobacco use at all.
The study of highest earning films from 1991 to 2009 was conducted in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco.