It looks as though on-screen smoking isn’t hot anymore in Hollywood.

A survey of smoking scenes in popular movies showed that there’s been a sharp decrease in puffing since 2005, USA Today reports. Last year, there were 1,935 instances of smoking in movies, compared with nearly 4,000 in 2005.

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At the same time, 54 percent of the PG-13 movies released in 2009 did show some form of tobacco use, the researchers said. The study was released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lead author, Stan Glantz, of the University of California San Francisco, said that the study proves that Hollywood is perfectly capable of making movies without smoking, and people still come to see them.”

In addition to the tallying of smoking scenes, the study recommended that movies with smoking scenes include preview messages about the health dangers of tobacco—and that movies with smoking be automatically given an R rating. (USA Today)

Jane Farrell is a senior editor at BettyConfidential.

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