SWEET INDULGENCE SINK YOUR TEETH INTO MARKY’S CREPES AND WAFFLES {page 13}
ROCKET MAN IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE FOR GLEE STAR {page 9}
LONDON
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Lights, camera ... light up?
Slavic. Soul
Health unit’s wishlist: give films with smoking adult rating, run anti-tobacco ads before show, stop IDing tobacco brands KYLE REA
@METRONEWS.CA
Maria Sharapova serves against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in a fourth-round match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, yesterday. More coverage, page 16. CHRISTOPHE ENA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian star advances at French Open Sharapova won the last four games to beat 12th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 7-6 (4), 7-5 and reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final in two years. The seventh-seeded Sharapova has won the other three major tournaments once apiece, but she’s still looking for her first title at Roland Garros.
It’s something we often see in movies ranging from Pirates of the Caribbean to The King’s Speech. And while some of us may not notice when Colin Firth lights up a cigarette, folks at the Middlesex-London Health Unit, and at health agencies across the province, certainly do. And it’s something they don’t want shown to kids and teens. As part of the Ontario Coalition for Smoke Free Movies, starting today they’ll pressure the Ontario Film Review board and ask that ratings for films depicting tobacco use be changed to 18A — in other words, restricted for all those under 18. “It’s trying to get tobacco out of youth-themed movies,” said Amy Yateman, health promoter with Middlesex-London. “A lot of actors and actresses make it look really cool and it’s not a necessary part of the movie.” Teens who see smoking won’t necessarily start, but seeing
Butt out The U.S. website, scenesmoking.org, rates movies based on the frequency of tobacco usage. Movies can earn pink lungs for being tobacco-free or dirty ones for frequent usage. Middlesex-London Health Unit estimates 90 per cent of smokers begin in their teens. Every five minutes, one teenager will start smoking. Cigarettes kill an estimated 50 per cent of those who use them. In 2010, an estimated 14 per cent of teens aged 15-19 smoked.
puffers on the big screen could give youth the impression it’s normal and “cool,” Yateman said. She feels exceptions could be made whenever the consequences of tobacco use are shown, such as a person dying of cancer, or if it’s a historical figure who did smoke. “It’s throwing it in for no particular reason or having it there to add to the so-called coolness of the character, that’s an issue.”