Tobacco descriptors guidance published

A guidance providing information on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act’s (Public Law No. 111-31, ¶2006) requirements related to the prohibited use of "light," "mild," "low," or similar descriptors in the label, labeling, or advertising of tobacco products was published by the FDA.

Titled " Use of ‘Light,’ ‘Mild,’ ‘Low,’ or Similar Descriptors in the Label, Labeling, or Advertising of Tobacco Products," the document discusses how manufacturers may not manufacture for sale or distribution any tobacco products for which the label, labeling, or advertising contains the above descriptors.

Marlboro Lights is now Marlboro Gold Pack.

The guidance also clarifies that products with these descriptors that were manufactured before June 22, 2010, and introduced into commerce before July 22, 2010, may still be distributed or sold.

Hollywood smoking and their influence on our children

Hollywood is such a well known place by everybody in this world. You can see there almost every actor that you like and most of them are smoking actors.The number of Hollywood films showing on-screen smoking is back up to the levels of the 1950s, with nearly 80% of films rated for young audiences including scenes in which characters light up, according to researchers in California.

Why nearly half of all teenage smokers in the US try cigarettes can be linked to on-screen smoking, leading the researchers to call for an adult rating for all films that depict tobacco use. "The science is very solid. Smoking in the movies has a very substantial effect on the risk that kids will get addicted to nicotine," said Stanton Glantz, one of the researchers at the University of California San Francisco.

A sample of the top-grossing films over the last 50 years found that smoking decreased from an average of 10.7 events an hour in 1950 to 4.9 in 1982 - and then shot up to 10.9 by 2002. An "event" ranges from a character lighting a cigarette to a shot of a tobacco advertisement.When teens see smoking cigarettes on TV they believe this is right, but it is not.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America told the San Jose Mercury that industry statistics showed that only about half of PG-13 movies over the past two years had featured tobacco use. "Everybody agrees that ... our industry shouldn't be encouraging or glamourising smoking," the spokeswoman said. But the study, published in December's issue of the journal Pediatrics, found that nearly four out of five PG-13 movies show somebody smoking cigarettes or cigars or chewing tobacco.