Last week on the ABC program 20/20, environmental and consumer reporter John Stossel offered a public apology to his viewers.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Strategies proposed to address smoking-related health consequences in the United States have spurred heated political debate. Bridging the Ideological Divide: An Analysis of Views on Tobacco Policy Across the Political Spectrumexamines attitudes on the issue of tobacco as found in published statements by columnists, publications, organizations and politicians from ideological camps on the political left and political right.

In a full page ad in the New York Times this week, the Coalition for a Smoke-Free New York called on the New York City Council to pass legislation requiring that all workplaces, including small restaurants, restaurant bars and stand-alone bars and nightclubs become l00% smokefree. New York City already has expansive smoke-free laws, but still allows smoking in bars and in eateries that seat under 30.

Walter Olson's July 18 editorial-page commentary "The Runaway Jury Is No Myth" describes many lines of attack that tobacco lawyers will pursue as they appeal the landmark Engle tobacco verdict. Mr. Olson's uncompromising support of each of the tobacco industry's positions, one more erroneous than the next, leads one to question whether any verdict that would hold the companies responsible for their misconduct would sit well with him.

To the Editor:
Re "Tobacco's New Best Friend," by Jacob Sullum (Op-Ed, July 20):
I agree with Mr. Sullum when he asserts that government is an ally of the tobacco industry, but this has long been true. Although the tobacco industry appeared to fight the congressionally mandated warning labels that began appearing on cigarette packs in 1965, the industry was well aware that these labels would shield them from liability for their deceptive marketing practices, and that they would have no beneficial effect on public health.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Despite years of intensive research, educational efforts, and remedial measures, lead continues to receive as much attention as any modern environmental health risk. Some would still characterize lead as America's leading environmental health concern. Based on a review of the scientific literature, and assessing lead from the perspective of public health, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has come to the conclusions stated below.

Many Americans engage in bicycling principally to improve their health and/or physical fitness for example, to control body weight, blood pressure, and/or plasma cholesterol concentrations, and/or to increase agility. Bicycling is useful not only toward these ends but also as a mode of physical therapy (e.g., to promote recovery from knee surgery) and as a means of stress reduction.
On the other hand, bicycling entails many health risks, even for experienced bicyclists. National statistics suggest that in the United States:

While Americans blithely go about their business, an insidious and irrational flee from technology is taking place all in the name of "public health." Over the past two months alone, two safe and useful products have been taken away from consumers despite the conclusions that the approved use of those products are safe.
To make matters worse, some manufacturers of these rejected technologies are joining forces with some extreme environmentalist groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect us from hazards that do not exist.

A study published in a respected scientific journal initiated a flurry of anti-soda rhetoric. The main message was that adolescent girls' consumption of sodas, especially colas, increases their risk of bone fractures.

ACSH Phthalate Panel:
C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD, Chair;Daland R. Juberg, PhD;Elissa P. Benedek, MD;Ronald W. Brecher, PhD, CChem, DABT;Robert L. Brent, MD, PhD;Morton Corn, PhD;Vincent Covello, PhD;Theron W. Downes, PhD; Shayne C. Gad, PhD, DABT;Lois Swirsky Gold, PhD;F. Peter Guengerich, PhD;John Higginson, MD, FRCP;W. Hans K °nemann, PhD, RIVM;James C. Lamb IV, PhD, DABT;Paul J. Lioy, PhD;Kimberly M. Thompson, ScD
To the Editor, Medscape*