Reference no: EM132796331

For this journal submission, choose an environmental/occupational exposure and health outcome of interest. This could be a well-established relationship such as secondhand smoke and lung cancer or a less established relationship such as BPA exposure and impaired brain development. After choosing your outcome of interest, explain the exposure-outcome relationship and apply at least THREE of Hill's Criteria of Causality to this relationship. Read carefully the definitions in the Hill article and ask yourself the following for the criteria you choose to address:

Title - Second Hand Smoke and Lung Cancer

Strength - Is the measure of association (risk) high? This is represented by odds ratios (OR) for case-control studies and relative risks (RR) for cohort studies. For example, an OR of 7.9 would be considered a strong association; while an OR of 1.13 would not be. Consistency - Do all or most of the studies show the same results?

Specificity - Does the disease of interest result only from the exposure of interest (or nearly so) and not other types of exposures?

Temporality - Is there evidence that the exposure came before the disease (cause before effect)? This criterion must be met to assign causality!

Biologic Gradient - Do we see increased risk of disease associated with an increases in exposure (either dose or time)?

Plausibility - Is the exposure - disease relationship biologically plausible? An example would be inhaled exposures causing lung disease.

Coherence - is the exposure - disease relationship consistent with current theory and knowledge?

Indicate whether these criteria support causality (or not) for your chosen exposure - health outcome. Are additional epidemiologic studies needed? You should appropriately reference at least TWO scientific articles that support your point(s).

Please cite references with superscripted footnotes, and AMA format.