THE tobacco giants have once again incurred the wrath of the medical establishment. This time it's due to a series of advertisements being published in the national press over the next six weeks by the firm Philip Morris, manufacturers of Marlboro. Obviously piqued by increasing concern over the hazards of passive smoking, the firm's new publicity campaign is designed to try and quash these fears by describing the risks from passive smoking as trivial.

In a bizarre league table of risk, the hazards of passive smoking (as defined, incidentally, by only one of its many detrimental effects, that of causing lung cancer) are listed beneath those of homely activities such as eating one biscuit a day, or using pepper.

The anger of the medical establishment and of the European social affairs commissioner, Padraig Flynn, is unsurprising. The advertisments are misleading to the point of dishonesty. Although a study showed that passive smoking increases the risk of lung cancer by rather less than previously believed - though still an untrivial 20% - the other dangers of passive smoking are completely ignored, such as its known ability to exacerbate asthma, bronchitis and breathing difficulties, not to mention its potentially life-threatening effects on the unborn child.

At a time when heart disease is still the number one killer in Britain, with Scotland and Northern Ireland having among the highest incidences in the world, attempts by the tobacco industry to brush aside fears of the detrimental effects of smoking are, at best, misguided and, at worst, immoral. Smoking is the number one risk factor for both heart disease and lung cancer.

Smokers who escape these are likely to suffer a middle age plagued with frequent exacerbations of chronic bronchitis, with its attendant problems of recurring hospital admissions, permanent cough, persistent wheeze and breathing difficulties.

The limited effectiveness of lecturing about well-known health hazards is obvious - by now, most people know smoking is bad for them, they don't need it repeatedly shoved down their throats by sanctimonious health care professionals.

Ordering the public to stop smoking is patronising, unsympathetic - some people live under such duress that even a saint would be permanently dragging on a fag - and even hypocritical; after all, smoking is addictive, stress relieving, and calorie-free, characteristics that have drawn many of us to it at some time or another.

However, sympathy in dealing with persistent smokers does not stretch to embracing fiction about its health effects. This attempt to brush aside the risks of passive smoking is not only dishonest, but indirectly condones the active habit.

Cigarettes may be appealing, but they well and truly knacker the body. Philip Morris can sell them on any other pretext, but the safety of passive smoking just won't wash. Why do you think the Marlboro man is always on his own?