China is ordering Chinese filmmakers and television producers to limit the amount of smoking depicted on-screen in an effort to curb tobacco use.

Plot lines and scenes involving smoking should only be used when necessary for artistic purposes or character development, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said on its website Tuesday.

Under the new rules, minors under age 18 cannot be shown smoking or buying cigarettes, and characters may not smoke in public buildings or other places where smoking is banned.

China has been tightening up restrictions on smoking over the past decade, banning tobacco advertising and sponsorships of major sporting events.

That's part of a slow realization of the massive toll heavy tobacco use is taking on an aging, increasingly urbanized population. Tobacco use is linked to the deaths of at least 1 million people every year in China, where 300 million people (or nearly 30 per cent of adults) smoke.

Last August, a group of Canadian doctors called on federal and provincial governments to stop subsidizing movie productions that depict smoking in films aimed at children and teens.

Studies worldwide show smoking in movies is a powerful way to recruit young people to the addiction, said Neil Collishaw, research director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

With files from The Associated Press

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