THE scientist Baroness Greenfield is at the centre of a row after her institution agreed to host a seminar organised by the tobacco industry.

The Royal Institution, of which the Oxford University Professor of Pharmacology is director, has been attacked as naive after the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association hired its rooms for the talk, titled the ”Science of Environmental Tobacco Smoke,” next month.

Anti-smoking campaigners and researchers said that the venue would lend a “veneer of respectability” to views rejected by most mainstream scientists about a ban on smoking in public places.

Professor John Britton, of the University of Nottingham, chair of the Royal College of Physicians’ tobacco advisory group, said that he was “surprised and disappointed” that the RI had accepted the booking. “I think it is at the very least a naive decision, and at worst it’s incompetent,” he said.

“The aim of this conference seems to be to cast doubt on the science of whether passive smoking is harmful and to promote the idea that ventilation might be a solution for public places.

“They want to create the impression that Britain’s top scientists are debating these issues, and there is no such debate.” The British Medical Association, which also supports a public ban, is angry that a draft programme, seen by The Times, lists Vivienne Nathanson, its head of ethics, as a possible speaker “to be confirmed”. “She has not been approached and there is no way we would attend,” a BMA spokesman said. “We do have concerns that this draft schedule has been circulated with her name on it to give other potential speakers the impression it will be balanced.” Ian Willmore of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: “Why has the tobacco industry chosen to have this at the RI? It is a strategy to try to obscure the true state of scientific opinion.

“The RI normally does a great job promoting the public acceptance and understanding of science, and it shouldn’t be collaborating with a group like this.”

Baroness Greenfield said that the seminar was a private function, and that the RI did not endorse any of the disparate organisations that hire its premises.

“This is an event to which all sides, including ASH, have been invited, and tobacco is a legal industry, even though it may not be to everybody’s taste,” she said.

“If we blocked this in a politically correct way, where would we be with the drinks industry or food companies? We would have Alcoholics Anonymous and the anti-obesity lobby objecting too.”

She would not comment on her own views on a public smoking ban, but said: “I am certainly not a smoker and don’t encourage it. The RI operates a no-smoking policy.”

A spokesperson for the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association said: “We do want our side of the debate to be given an airing, but we have also invited ASH and other anti-smoking people because we want it to be a balanced debate. We are trying to be as fair as possible, even though that often doesn’t work both ways.”

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