Friday, December 20, 2013

Editorial: We Have The Say! by Paula

Smoke-free movies are an ongoing issue. There are groups that support smoke-free movies and groups who are against them. Me, I support smoke-free movies. Movies with smoke scenes should be banned from children films completely. Even if they got someone older to buy the ticket, they should not be able to get in to watch the movies.
            According to the U.S. Surgeon General, “the adoption of such policies would contribute to reduction in adolescents smoking behavior.” He is basically saying if we adopt these anti-tobacco methods in movies for youth such as me, it will advise us not to smoke just because we see it in movie. In 2012, there were a total of 2,818 tobacco incidents in the top arising movies, compared to 1,880 in 2011, and 1,819 in 2010 when the total number of incidents reached its lowest level since 2002. This means that each year, the numbers of incidents we see in movies are increasing by a great deal. An incident is when there is a scene in the movies that has tobacco in it as: someone smoking, chewing tobacco, or name brands of tobacco show up. If we let each year rise a little more with the incidents in movies, that’s not only giving across the message to smoke for young ones, but also getting actors addicted to smoking.

            Smoke-free movies will help young teens not start smoking. It can also help actors quit and be warned of the dangers of starting to smoke. The Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Project is a good way to see if the movie has a good rating on how much tobacco is in a movie. The website is www.scenesmoking.com and will give you any information on the movie and its amount of smoke scenes. Movies are rated by pink and black lung. The pink lung is semi-okay amounts of incidents in the movie. The black lung rating means that there were a lot of incidents in the movie. Having smoke-free movies is a war we need to win. Movies do influence youth a lot so be careful what you let your children watch because the message from that movie can become a deadly lifestyle later in life.               

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