Medical and legal causation

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ozonoff D
• Description:
  Litigation has become a driving force for much that is being done in the field of occupational medicine. The causation discussed in this report deals primarily with tort actions in which the plaintiff must demonstrate that a defendant was the legal cause of an occupational illness. According to the author, the term causation is frequently misunderstood. Causation is a judgement call and therefore it is important to establish whose judgement is going to prevail and for what purposes. If scientific consensus is achieved regarding the causative relationship between happenings and a given event, the controversy about the legal causation will be lessened. The causation issue in occupational disease can be approached from the general or universal point of view or from the particular or clinical point of view. The population approach must show that the particular case represents a general phenomenon. While fear of liability is not the only factor, it is an important ingredient in employer decision making. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Occupational Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety
• Keywords:
  Legislation NIOSH-Publication Occupational-diseases Occupational-exposure Risk-analysis Worker-health
• ISBN:
  9780897665230
• ISSN:
  0077-8923
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  23-26
• Volume:
  572
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00202327
• Citation:
  Ann NY Acad Sci 1989 Dec; 572:23-26
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:faf171ad3e588d3047c99b718060f2e959785af02ed12f7d77b45e9de755f22fd7e7def7f683d855c73c86b1bb24b145a8d786e4c3a6a8468a72bdab8dbfd45b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/205087/cdc_205087_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 251.79 KB ]