Tobacco is appearing more in blockbuster movies, raising public health concerns, a new study finds.

Depictions or suggestions of tobacco use in top-grossing movies rose 72 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to the report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase was especially large among top-grossing movies with R ratings, which saw a 90 percent rise in tobacco-use imagery, though researchers noted with special concern that movies rated PG-13 also saw a sizable increase: 43 percent.

That, they said, is troubling because evidence strongly suggests that depictions of smoking in movies can lead to youth smoking. To mitigate that, the Motion Picture Association of America should consider giving an R rating to any movie that depicts smoking, they said.

“There is an enormous need to implement an industrywide standard by requiring that all movies rated for kids are smoke-free,” Dr. Stanton Glantz, one of the report’s authors, said in a news release. Dr. Glantz is a professor and director of the University of California, San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. He and two of the four other authors have received grants from the Truth Initiative, an antismoking group.

Despite the rise in depictions of tobacco use in movies, cigarette smoking among teenagers is nonetheless declining thanks to robust public health efforts.