SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's top prosecutor and 37 of his counterparts are urging movie studios to take smoking out of youth-oriented films.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff signed a letter sent Thursday to 10 movie studios, calling them to include anti-tobacco messages in videos that depict smoking, and to keep tobacco brands out of future movies.
The letter comes two months after a U.S. Surgeon General's report that concluded casual depictions of smoking in the movies are connected to youth starting to smoke.
Shurtleff called smoking in films "a colossal, preventable tragedy."
It's not the first time prosecutors have spoken out on the issue. The National Association of Attorneys General adopted a resolution in 1998 asking the film industry to reduce tobacco use in its productions.
Comments