There is – or was – going to be a public debate in London on the health effects of passive smoking. Not now. Defenders of the notion that passive smoking does indeed have the noxious consequences so often claimed for it proved strangely reluctant to participate. The excuse given was, in essence, that they did not want to dignify the skeptics with a reply.
Perhaps.
More likely that they recognize that trumpeting the supposed dangers of passive smoking is about politics not science, and simply cannot withstand critical scrutiny.
Their silence is thus prudent – and telling.