News Archive

John Cardarelli, HPS President

Over the past six months, the Health Physics Society (HPS) leadership has undertaken a major project to produce a series of videos that describe the historical foundations of the linear no-threshold (LNT) dose response model.

The most published researcher on the history of the LNT model is Dr. Edward Calabrese, a toxicology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Our team visited Professor Calabrese for two days in mid-October 2021 and interviewed him for 14 hours. He was not given any questions in advance and agreed to provide all the documentation to support his statements.

Dr. Calabrese details the historical events that forged the current radiation protection philosophy we know today. He exposes scientific integrity issues, ethical and moral dilemmas, and the influence of money in research and challenges the current regulatory framework of radiation protection. He also suggests ways to improve the scientific foundation in radiation protection regulations, guidelines, and policies.

As president of the HPS, I am proud to announce this 22-episode video documentary series describing the history of the linear no-threshold model. We think these videos will educate and significantly contribute to the International Commission on Radiological Protection review of the entire system of radiation protection.

I encourage you to watch the entire series. Question every statement and ask yourself at the end if there is a better, more scientific approach to assess risk from radiation exposure. Please share it with other colleagues who might have an interest in the topic—and if they become members of the Society, they will have access to many of the documents presented in these videos.

I welcome your feedback!