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Today’s teenagers have been exposed to information on the dangers of smoking since their grammar school days, or even earlier. Yet, every day some 3,000 teens start smoking cigarettes. What leads kids to take their first cigarette?

There are many factors, including a lack of information on the specific deleterious effects of smoking, a sense of immortality, pressure from their peers, a desire to look sophisticated, “cool” or defiant. But according to a new study published in the British medical journal the Lancet, there may be another pro-smoking force in play: teens’ desire to emulate the smoking behavior of the big stars they see in Hollywood’s most successful films.

Based on screenings of the 250 top-box office films from l988 to l997, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School conclude that 85% of the films contained tobacco use; 28 percent (including one in five children’s movies) showed cigarette-brand logos. Some of the worst offenders, Bruce Willis, who smoked in “The Last Boy Scout”; and Al Pacino, who puffed on Winstons in “Sea of Love.”

Of particular interest here is the fact that the researchers noted that in l989 the tobacco industry agreed to a voluntary ban on paying to place its products in Hollywood films — but that since that ban, the promotion of cheap cigarettes in films has gotten even more pervasive than before.

Why is there so much smoking in movies today if Hollywood is no longer being paid to include smoking on the set? The Tobacco Industry argues that cigarettes are a great prop, giving instant personality traits, including edginess and defiance, to the character portrayed.

The most chilling statistic in the Lancet study is that young film fans are three times as likely to smoke if their favorite screen idol lights up.

Why are film-makers promoting smoking? One explanation that has been floated is that they are indeed still getting paid by the manufacturers to do this — but there is no evidence that this is the case. So the motivation remains a mystery. Clearly, in a free country there cannot be an across-the-board ban on smoking in films, but certainly an outcry of protest from American movie-goers and parents might cause the Hollywood producers to reconsider their decision.