<a href=”

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=546790

“>Artist David Hockney on the British government’s possible plans to ban smoking in public places:

“I don’t believe the stuff about second-hand smoke…I don’t believe a lot of stuff from medical people.” Well, generally speaking, the second part of that comment is the sort of unscientific nonsense one usually hears from homeopaths, faith-healers and other dispensers of gibberish, and can, and should, be ignored. Check out, however, the response from the BMA (like the AMA, only worse):

“What David Hockney says flies in the face of virtually all medical research, which conclusively states that second-hand smoke causes lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory infections.”

That is, I am afraid, so meaningless a statement (is there a dangerous dose, and what is it?) as to be utterly misleading. No, let’s use a different, more accurate, word. It’s dishonest.

We should expect better from doctors.