Introductory statement

Environmental Health Sciences sponsored a conference in Pinehurst, N. C., on the extrapolation of carcinogenesis data. One of the major objectives of the Pinehurst Conference was to bring together in a common forum representatives of the diverse scientific and administrative fields that are involved in the low-dose extrapolation issue. It was hoped that a greater understanding of the dimensions of the extrapolation problem might be attained through the interchange of information among statisticians, theoretical and applied biologists engaged in cancer research, government officials responsible for the formulation and enforcement of regulatory policy, and members of the chemical industry. While it was recognized that the various viewpoints to be expressed at the conference were likely to be too divergent to produce a consensus regarding the most appropriate means for dealing with the risk estimation question, it did seem reasonable to expect that a "current state of the art" position on low-dose extrapolation could be developed, at least informally , as an outgrowth of the Conference. Abstracts as well as short papers were accepted for the Conference, and all submitted communications are reproduced in this issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. In addition, a summary of the Conference prepared by Wil Lepkowski, a scientific news writer, is also included.