Filtration aided by nanomaterials will make smoking safer

This is real harm reduction. The Royal Society of Chemists reports a recent study finding that nanomaterials can be used in filtering to reduce significantly the toxins inhaled by smokers.

Isn't it fantastic how scientists can put their minds to solving a health problem? Or a social problem?

We can guess what the response of the tobacco control community will be. The same as it has been to the ventilation/air management issue, and radio-controlled tobacco vending machines. 'We are not wholly persuaded that the proposed mechanism is entirely foolproof' (col. 23117), said Ross Finnie MSP of radio-controlled vending machines. (Most of us don't believe that the proposed tobacco display ban is entirely foolproof either.)

Sheila Duffy, paragon of scientific objectivity, mentions the 'discredited and expensive solution of ventilation'. The word 'ventilation' is hyperlinked to a web page of the Department of Health in Colorado, effectively an opinion piece on myths about secondary smoke, and it includes the efficacy of 'ventilation' as one of the myths.

Presenting a health service information sheet as any kind of evidence to support her cause, as if it  demonstrates scientifically the eternal and complete ineffectiveness of any kind of air cleaning system, shows only contempt for her readers.

The only right answer for people like Ms Duffy is compliance with the wishes of ASH Scotland. This applies to the whole anti-tobacco movement. Scientific methods to make smoking less dangerous are a dangerous distraction from the prohibitionists' goal of cessation.

Belated h/tip to Juliette Tworsey.