Before his move into government, Hingson hung his hat at the Boston University School of Public Health, where he published over 50 manuscripts on the dangers of alcohol. In a 1996 research report, Hingson claimed that a nationwide “.08” standard would save “500 to 600 lives a year.” This bogus statistic was repeated by elected officials at every level of government, including then-president Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, Hingson’s sound bite had no demonstrable facts behind it. A 1999 analysis by the nonpartisan U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) looked at Hingson’s methodology and declared in its report to Congress: “The study’s conclusion that 500 to 600 fewer fatal crashes would occur annually if all states had .08 [percent] BAC laws is unfounded.”

But shortly after this statistically flawed study made national headlines, MADD made Hingson a national board member and its vice president of public policy.

Hingson is also the senior advisor to Join Together Online (JTO), a web-based project of the Boston University School of Public Health. JTO is funded by the anti-alcohol Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is dedicated to marginalizing the responsible consumption of adult beverages.