Media leading 'drug educator' for kids, doctors say

Despite severe restrictions on tobacco advertising, youths are still too often exposed to media depicting smoking and drinking in a favorable light, according to one group of doctors.

"We are 65,000 pediatricians who are vitally concerned with the health of children," said Dr. Victor Strasburger of the American Academy of Pediatrics, author of a new policy statement on children, adolescents, substance abuse and the media.

"With nearly half of kids at least trying smoking, and with more than 400,000 Americans dying every year from tobacco, the academy feels it is really time to ban all tobacco advertising."

On Monday, the academy published the policy statement in its journal Pediatrics, which also recommended limiting alcohol advertising and exposure of children to PG-13 and R-rated movies.

The authors say more than $25 billion are spent every year on advertising tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs.

"Parents have gotten caught up with all the hard drugs - cocaine, steroids - but they fail to realize that tobacco and alcohol are still by far the leading drugs among teenagers," Strasburger, also of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, told Reuters Health.

According to the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, about 46 million Americans light up. Relative to the population, that number is down by more than half since 1965, although millions still get serious illness every year from smoking.

One in five high school students smoked cigarettes in 2007, a number that has also dropped over the past decade.

Strasburger said banning tobacco ads and promotions in all media worked and had decreased smoking rates in other countries such as the UK and Australia.

"At its most fundamental level, we agree with the academy," said Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc., the second largest U.S. tobacco company. "Kids shouldn't smoke."

She said the bulk of industry advertising, $15 billion according to the new statement, really wasn't advertising, but price discounts.

Advertising in a traditional sense, she said, is limited to password-protected websites, in-store ads, adult smokers who have requested to be on a mailing list and magazines with a readership of at least 85 percent adults.

And these ads, she said, aren't meant to get more people hooked.

"Because the number of adults who smoke is declining every year, the name of the game is brand switching," she told Reuters Health.

But even if advertising is restricted, exposure to smoking is still common in the media. For instance, the authors of the new statement note, three-quarters of G-, PG-, and PG-13-rated movies contain smoking scenes.

According to Strasburger, several studies suggest smoking on television and in movies is a key factor in getting teens to pick up the habit.