A study published this week in the health journal Tobacco Control reveals scores of smartphone applications are promoting a pro-smoking message, from brands to games. 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.
Some were programmes that allowed the user to simulate smoking or collect points for buying Marlboro cigarettes.
Others included pictures of global brands or images of cigarettes that could be set as "wallpaper" for the phone.
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.
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.
The worry is that the apps will glamorise smoking among the young, it says.
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"App stores need to explore ways of regulating this content."
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Source-AFP