A U.S. study has determined exposure to smoking in movies has a strong correlation with young adults beginning to smoke.

   Previous studies found on-screen smoking was linked to recruitment of adolescent smokers, but the new University of California-San Francisco study is believed the first to link smoking among young adults with exposure to smoking scenes in films

   "Ages 18 to 25 are critical years, when one-third of smokers start and others who began smoking as adolescents either stop smoking or become regular smokers," said Professor Stanton Glantz, senior author of the study and director of the university's Center for To bacco Control Research and Education.

   The research team found a "dose-response relationship" between exposure to smoking on screen and the likelihood of having smoked during the past 30 days in a sample of 1,528 young adults.

   The study findings are detailed in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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