The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has monitored on-screen smoking since at least 2002 in its semi-annual reports on smoking among US high school students and in co-authored research articles about on-screen trends and the US film industry's response.
Now a "core surveillance indicator" | In 2012, the CDC added movie smoking to its array of national public health indicators, explaining:
Reducing smoking and tobacco use in youth-oriented movies is not a niche issue. The Surgeon General has concluded that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in movies and smoking initiation among young people, and the US Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal of reducing youth exposure to onscreen smoking ...
We all have a responsibility to prevent youth from becoming tobacco users, and the movie industry has a responsibility to protect our youth from exposure to tobacco use and other pro-tobacco imagery in movies that are produced and rated as appropriate for children and adolescents. Eliminating tobacco imagery in movies is an important step that should be easy to take. (November 2012)
Annual fact sheets | The CDC now posts online fact sheets reporting each year's developments, including the tobacco performance of major media companies Comcast, Disney, Sony, Time Warner and Viacom, and independents with top-grossing films.
Vetted by CDC's Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), these fact sheets are a quick reference for everyone who wants to make kids safe from tobacco, America's #1 cause of preventable death.
External Links:
CDC FACT SHEETS...
Current fact sheet
Smoking in the movies, 2020 (2019 data)
Archived fact sheets
Smoking in the movies, 2019 (2018 data)
Smoking in the movies, 2018 (2017 data)
Smoking in the movies, 2017 (2016 data)
Smoking in the Movies, 2016 (2015 data)
Smoking in the movies, 2015 (2014 data)
Smoking in the movies, 2014 (2013 data)
Smoking in the movies, 2013 (2012 data)