Poor radon, it doesn’t have a massive PR campaign. No one spends millions pushing the message that radon is harmless. It doesn’t get a cheering squad. It’s regarded as just what it is: an airborne carcinogen. You’ve never heard anyone say “radon IS harmless.

This is how we know the tobacco industry’s campaign of deception on secondhand smoke is effective. We hear it. The cheering for secondhand smoke that you don’t hear for any other pollutant, any other carcinogen, any other pathogen.

Sometimes the cheering repeats industry PR themes almost word for word. “Not proven!”

Could it be because Philip Morris had been tracking Wynder for 25 years, and knew he believed secondhand smoke was harmless:

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/mmj49d00

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/lfb98e00

How did it happen that Parrish ended up with a teacher on secondhand smoke whose opinion on secondhand smoke was so convenient for the industry?

After all, scientific consensus was the other way around. It wasn’t impossible to find a scientist who held the opinion convenient to the industry — but it would have meant a search.

You could for instance also find a scientist who believes HIV doesn’t cause AIDS:

http://www.duesberg.com/

But you’d have to search for that. Most scientists believe HIV causes AIDS.

How was it that Parrish’s teacher on secondhand smoke just happened to be a scientist who believed that secondhand smoke is harmless?

And Parrish apparently never talked to any of the scientists who believe secondhand smoke causes disease?

Was this a “good faith effort to talk to scientists to find out the state of information on secondhand smoke”?

Or was this a talk with a particular scientist that Philip Morris knew would give the opinion convenient to the industry?

You be the judge.