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To the Editor.—
The work of Walter, published in the September 1981 Archives (117:547-550), on the evaluation of seven sunscreens in the hairless mouse certainly appears to demonstrate well the relative efficacies of the preparations in protecting against the inhibition of DNA synthesis induced by UV radiation. We also agree that the hairless mouse should be an excellent animal model for such assessments. However, on examining the results closely, we were concerned about some inconsistencies in the data that led us to wonder about the validity of this particular study.In the experiments in which the various sunscreens were applied, there was enormous variation in the control values, from 1,148 disintegrations per minute per disk to 4,898 disintegrations per minute per disk in Table 2 of the article. These readings were for ventral skin that, although taken from different animals, had apparently been treated in the same way, receiving neither