The concept of causality is reviewed with special emphasis on occupational diseases. Separate approaches from the philosophical, scientific, and legal points of view are identified. There is controversy over the methodology of logical causality; inductive and deductive methods are described and reference is made to the verification or refutation approach. Application of the methods to epidemiol...

Occupational interstitial lung diseases are a diverse group of disorders of varied cause. Occupational causes account for a significant portion of all interstitial lung diseases, and new causes continue to be described. Although some are diseases of antiquity, they continue to occur in the workplace and often are misdiagnosed as "idiopathic" when physicians miss the connection to past-inhaled e...

occupational exposure to heavy metals, organic solvents and silica is associated with a variety of renal manifestations. improved understanding of occupational renal disease provides insight into environmental renal disease, improving knowledge of disease pathogenesis. silica (sio 2 ) is an abundant mineral found in sand, rock, and soil. workers exposed to silica include sandblasters, miners, q...

'Department of Hygimene and Epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Goudi, Athens 115-27, Greece; 2Department of Epidemiology and Center for Cancer Prewention, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA; 3Department of Nutrition and Biochemistry, Athens School of Public Health, Leoforos Alexandras 196, Athens 115-21, Greece; 4Medical Cent...

To the uninitiated the term "occupational lung diseases" encompasses primarily four categories: coal workers' pneumoconiosis, silicosis, asbestosis, and berylliosis. Gee et al. in this primer provide evidence that agents injurious to the respiratory system are far more numerous and diverse than those described in general pathology texts. The breadth of physical, chemical, and biological irritan...