A December 28, 2005 article by Erin Kelly mentions a smoking-cessation statistic gleaned from ACSH:
Each year, about 40 percent of smokers try to quit. Of those, only about 5 percent succeed on their first try. About half succeed after several attempts, according to the American Council on Science and Health, a consortium of doctors, scientists and policy advisers.

Reports are coming from California describing clogged emergency rooms and doctors' offices ascribed to a sudden surge in influenza cases, a localized flu insurgency, as it were. This "California Flu" epidemic should be noted in the context of the yearly flu onslaughts we see each year, and there are some caveats we need to keep in mind, this year particularly:

A December 26, 2005 article by Lisa Ryckman in The Monitor quotes ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, albeit a smidge condescendingly, on artificial sweeteners:
And what of cyclamates? That faux- sweetener saga began in 1937 with a discovery by chemistry graduate student Michael Sveda, who tasted something sweet on the cigarette he'd just stuck in his mouth while mucking about in the lab.

The old faithful of alarmist "consumer" organizations, the Environmental Working Group, just issued another in a long string of frightening but baseless "studies." This one notes that there are 260 different chemicals in the water supplied to 230 million Americans from 40,000 water supplies.
Oh no, not again. The alarms keep on sounding, day in and day out. This one is so spectacularly ludicrous that it must be addressed.

A December 21, 2005 article by Catherine Donaldson-Evans notes the hopes of Dr. Gilbert Ross of ACSH that humanity will create a successful bird flu vaccine:
"Eventually, when you have migrations of birds, you re going to get some cases in North America," said Dr. Gilbert Ross, medical director at the American Council on Science and Health...

A December 20, 2005 article by Megan Scott quotes ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava on crash dieting:
No more cake, cookies, or egg nog. We're not trying to be cruel. But if you watch what you eat, you have some room to indulge.
But don't starve yourself: Fasting until Christmas dinner is a no-no. Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, suggests eating breakfast, lunch and even a snack. ''It's when you're starving that you really tend to go for it and overeat,'' she says.

During what should be the happiest part of the year, many families will suffer tragedy related to alcohol-impaired driving. In addition to those families that suffer the loss or injury of a loved one, many individuals will experience the shame and high cost associated with being arrested for driving under the influence.

An article by Sara Solovitch in the December 19, 2005 Los Angeles Times on California's lawsuit against foods containing acrylamide included a quote from ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan -- and followed it with what may the public health overstatement of the year:

This piece first appeared in the December 16, 2005 New York Post.
Public-health advocates have to rally popular sentiment and political support to achieve many of their goals -- but increasingly, they seem to put politics before science.

Perhaps you're health but are told by your doctor, after a routine blood test, that you should take statins to combat high cholesterol. Fine. But then you start wondering what else you should be testing for in your blood. After all, you've been reading about all those toxic chemicals that invade our daily lives -- nasty-sounding things ranging from pesticides and PCBs to heavy metals and flame retardants.