Smoking in US movies declines

Tobacco use also falls among teens

WASHINGTON - The number of US movies in which an actor lights up fell sharply between 2005 and 2010, and this could have contributed to the decline in smoking among US teens, a study released on Thursday says.

A majority of movies - 55 percent - that scored huge box office success in the United States in 2010 had no scenes that included tobacco use, compared with a third of top-grossing films in 2005, according to the study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).