Calculated Risks demystifies the science and policies of risk assessment. It has become a staple in risk education, and is essential reading for students and professionals in public health, environmental protection, and public policy.

Thomas A. Burke

Johns Hopkins University

Rodricks' book needs to be read by every medical scientist with any concern for public health issues as well as by environmental and food safety campaigners. It will sharpen debating skills enormously, broaden understanding of risk through chemicals and reveal not a few idiocies. Rodricks tells the scientists, the campaigners and the concerned citizens what they need to know. And they won't even need a dictionary. Dose-response curves, thresholds, environmental epidemiology and drug metabolism are all covered in simple and, at times, humorous terms. Toxicology is delightful - an art as well as science. Rodricks covers both.

Simon Wolff

New Scientist Review

When the author starts playing with the idea that sometimes what's false may be true and what's true may be false, you get into the book. The poor protagonist, a Berkeley 60s version of Raskolnikov, commits a crime against science, then broods, and broods some more, so deeply entrenched is the scientific code in his brain and being. But when he morphs from scientific malefactor to scientific martyr, he has the greatest difficulty making either his crime or his confession stick. So how does the book measure up to Allegra Goodman's best-seller, Intuition, which also is about scientific misconduct? On the one hand, it doesn't, but it might have, had an editor squeezed the bejesus out of it, and squeezed it again until it carbonized, and again till it sparkled. On the other hand, Allegra Goodman doesn't approach the variety of themes Rodricks introduces: the Catholic church, family, Cabalistic plots against science, food, sexuality, murder... well, have a look.

Philip Nolan