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James Bond film analysis shows marked decrease in smoking

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He may have a licence to kill, but it turns out James Bond is becoming increasingly aware of risks to his health.

Renowned for his shaken (not stirred) martinis, fictional spy James Bond has long been seen as quite attached to his cigarettes - shown smoking in bed, while driving and once even while flying a hang glider.

But new analysis of all 24 films has found that 007 has kicked the habit for 15 years now, with his final smoke in 2002 in Die Another Day.  

The study, published on Tuesday in international journal Tobacco Control, has shown the films are still riddled by images of smoking, with only one film in the 55-year franchise smoke-free - Casino Royale (2006).

As the longest-running and highest-grossing global movie franchise, researchers have previously been concerned by the impact of Bond's lifestyle habits on audiences, with studies focusing on his alcohol consumption and violence.

The new study, conducted by the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, marked the first analysis of 007's smoking habits since the films began in 1962.

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The study found Bond's on-screen smoking peaked in the 1960s, when he lit up for 83 per cent of screen time. On average, 007 reached for a cigarette within the first 20 minutes of each film.

But over the past few decades his smoking habits have decreased, as he became smoke-free during the 1990s and stopped in 2002.

Since 1967, references to dangers of smoking have increased, beginning with one villain's quip: "It won't be the nicotine that kills you Mr Bond".

Mr Bond also seems to have outgrown the "smoking-related spy gadgetry" which featured in four out of five films of the 1970s, including guns disguised as cigarettes, stun gas-releasing cigarettes and radio-transmitting lighters.

However, the researchers are concerned that images of smoking remain prevalent in the films, given "links between smoking in movies and teens taking it up". 

According the study's authors, Professor Nick Wilson and Anne Tucker, the spy is still subject to secondhand smoke from Bond girls and villains, the latest example his love interest Sévérine in Skyfall (2012).

Its successor Spectre (2015) did not portray any smoking by Bond's "major associates", but did show other characters smoking indoors. 

"While there are some favourable downward smoking-related trends in this movie series, the persisting smoking content remains problematic from a public health perspective, especially given the popularity of this movie series," the authors wrote.

"One estimate for [Spectre] indicates 261 million 'tobacco impressions' for the 10 to 29-year age-group in the USA alone." 

Bond is still likely to die another day: the study also noted that the risks to Bond from his lovers' smoking was likely reduced due to "the typically brief nature of his relationships" and their "typically... short lives with a cumulative mortality from violence".