Frontal Attack on Radiation

Radiation risk: A scientific problem?" by Robert Holcomb (6 Feb., p.853) is an amazingly accurate report of the "direct frontal attack" on existing guidelines for limiting radiation exposure and recommendations of the world's experts in mammalian radiation biology. Holcomb's report echoes the unemotional aspects of many radio biologists' reactions to the Gofman Tamplin challenge; however, when dissecting the "attack" in terms of opinion versus evidence, risk versus benefit, and extrapolation versus measurement, some key issues perhaps have been camouflaged.