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Society

Why Tobacco Companies Love French Films

LE PARISIEN and LES ECHOS (France)

A public health advocacy group called the French League Against Cancer is taking advantage of World No Tobacco Day - today - to sound the alarm about "hidden advertising" for cigarettes.

Tobacco advertising was outlawed in France in 1991. And yet cigarette manufacturers are still finding a way to get their products into mass media: French movies. According to the League, a recent survey found that "about 80% of the 180 movies included in the sample have scenes in which cigarettes brands and smokers are represented," Le Parisien reports.

More than 70% of these silver screen smokers are "honorable characters," who could thus encourage young people to start smoking. Tobacco addiction is the leading cause of death in France. On average, French smokers take their first puff at 14.

To fight this plague, the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (INPES) created an interactive Internet cartoon targeting children under 15. Attraction, as the cartoon is called, tries to "show the dark side of tobacco addiction," Les Echos reports.

The League against Cancer is pushing for new restrictions, arguing that films representing tobacco addiction should be off limits to children under 18.

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Society

Sleep Divorce: The Benefits For Couples In Having Separate Beds

Sleeping separately is often thought to be the beginning of the end for a loving couple. But studies show that having permanently separate beds — if you have the space and means — can actually reinforce the bonds of a relationship.

Image of a woman sleeping in a bed.

A woman sleeping in her bed.

BUENOS AIRES — Couples, it is assumed, sleep together — and sleeping apart is easily taken as a sign of a relationship gone cold. But several recent studies are suggesting, people sleep better alone and "sleep divorce," as the habit is being termed, can benefit both a couple's health and intimacy.

That is, if you have the space for it...

While sleeping in separate beds is seen as unaffectionate and the end of sex, psychologist María Gabriela Simone told Clarín this "is not a fashion, but to do with being able to feel free, and to respect yourself and your partner."

She says the marriage bed originated "in the matrimonial duty of sharing a bed with the aim of having sex to procreate." That, she adds, gradually settled the idea that people "who love each other sleep together."

Is it an imposition then, or an overwhelming preference? Simone says intimacy is one thing, sleeping another.

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