Britain's Health Education Authority (HEA) certainly thinks so, and is calling on the film industry to cut the number of smoking scenes in films.

According to a recent HEA report, the number of film scenes showing actors smoking increased almost four-fold between 1990 and 1995.

The study also found that in both years almost 80% of the top ten films at cinema box offices in the UK contained smoking scenes.

Where did they learn it?

On the silver screen, it seems, the image of the cigarette is still burning brightly.

"With so many people dying from smoking-related diseases every year in the UK, we urge the film industry to take a long hard look at their policy on smoking scenes," said Katie Aston from the HEA.

"The reality of life-long smoking is lung cancer and breathlessness, rather than the seductive and glamorous imagery that we are now seeing in many box-office films," she said.

Other anti-smoking campaigners worry that some children may be influenced by rather less fancy images of smokers. In the United States, for example, an Internet site lists every single incident of smoking in the popular cartoon series, The Simpsons.

However, Chris Hemblade from the film magazine Empire says that cutting smoking scenes from films is the beginning of a dangerous path.

"I think it's an issue of censorship in the end. If you go down this road, you end up expecting films to be public health statements. And they're not. They're entertainment. They're escapism," he said.

Emulating the stars

The authors of the HEA study believe that young people particularly can be influenced by glamorous images of smoking.

While adult smoking is on the decline, the number of teenage girls smoking rose by 5% between 1994 and 1996.

Today, about a third of Britain's 16- to 24-year-olds are regular smokers, reports the HEA.

Jean King from the Cancer Research Campaign confirms the HEA findings that seeing film stars smoking influences young people.

"We know that images have an impact on young people starting smoking. We know that advertising and sports sponsorship are important influences on young people taking up smoking.

"And they are getting contradictory messages: on the one hand they are being told smoking is irresponsible, and on the other hand it is being glamorised," she said.

However, the characters who smoke in films are more often categorised in the report as "unsympathetic" than "sympathetic".