Scenes of smoking in have been on a downward trajectory for five years, but no more: a study says there was an increase in characters smoking in films last year. Not only that, but many of the top-grossing movies that had several smoking scenes were aimed at young people, such as Rango and X-Men: First Class.

The UC San Francisco study was done in conjunction with Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, part of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails, which keeps track of the frequency of tobacco use in films. The 134 top-grossing films of 2011 featured almost 1,900 incidents of tobacco smoking, when an actor uses (or has implied use) of a tobacco product; most of those are smoking scenes.

Overall, tobacco frequency per movie went up 7 percent from 2010 to 2011, but for movies rated G, PG or PG-13, smoking prevalence per movie rose 36 percent. Other movies geared to young people that featured copious smoking scenes included Cowboys & Aliens and Green Hornet.

What we already know: The influence movies have on our behavior is taken seriously by helath researchers. A study this year in the journal Pediatrics found that teenagers who see more PG-13 and R-rated films that depict characters smoking might be more apt to smoke themselves. Another study set to be published in the journal Psychological Science suggested that young adolescents who watch films with more sexual content had more sex partners and began having sex at a younger age compared to peers who watched less sex-filled fare.

What this means for you: Many parents are concerned about the amount of violence in films, but it may be important to monitor other content movies contain. Seeing scenes of smoking in a movie may be a good opportunity to start a dialog with kids about the dangers of smoking, and to make them aware of attempts to make smoking look glamorous and consequence-free.

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Do you think movies influence young people to smoke? Let us know in the comments.

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Jeannine Stein, a California native, wrote about health for the Los Angeles Times