Scores of smartphone applications are promoting a pro-smoking message, from brands to games, according to a study published on Monday in the health journal Tobacco Control.<\/p>\n
Public-health researchers led by Nasser BinDihm at the University of Sydney in Australia say they found 107 tobacco-friendly apps in a trawl of the Apple App Store and Android Market.<\/p>\n
Some were programmes that allowed the user to simulate smoking or collect points for buying Marlboro cigarettes.<\/p>\n
Others included pictures of global brands or images of cigarettes that could be set as “wallpaper” for the phone.<\/p>\n
Some apps were a game where users can pass a cigarette to on-screen characters, or were “how to” programmes, such as advice for using hand-rolled tobacco.<\/p>\n
These apps are potential violations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which bans advertising and promoting tobacco products in all media, says the paper.<\/p>\n
The worry is that the apps will glamorise smoking among the young, it says.<\/p>\n
“Pro-smoking content, including explicit cigarette brand images, is promoted in smartphone apps which are reaching millions of users, including teenagers and children,” it says.<\/p>\n
“App stores need to explore ways of regulating this content.”<\/p>\n
Forty-two of the 107 apps were found on Android Market, where they were downloaded by around 11 million people on average.<\/p>\n
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