Attack on radiation geneticists triggers furor

Science : The work of Hermann Muller, who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Curt Stern, with whom Muller collaborated over a period of years on several key studies, laid the foundation for present-day radiation safety regulations. Current understanding of radiation exposure risk is based on the linear no-threshold model, in which the effect of radiation is proportional to the dose, even at very low levels of exposure. In two recent papers, Edward Calabrese, a toxicologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, alleges that Muller and Stern downplayed evidence that low levels of radiation might be harmless and that Muller was being misleading in his Nobel acceptance speech when he stated that there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Critics have pointed out the possibility that Calabrese’s own view may not be objective; some of his research—about 20%, according to Calabrese—is funded by chemical and nuclear industries. Calabrese has responded by saying that he is transparent about his sponsors and that he does not consult for them.