Editing Epidemiology (section)

=== Legal interpretation ===
[[Epidemiological study|Epidemiological studies]] can only go to prove that an agent could have caused, but not that it did cause, an effect in any particular case:

{{blockquote|Epidemiology is concerned with the [[Incidence (epidemiology)|incidence]] of disease in populations and does not address the question of the cause of an individual's disease. This question, sometimes referred to as specific causation, is beyond the domain of the science of epidemiology. Epidemiology has its limits at the point where an inference is made that the relationship between an agent and a disease is causal (general causation) and where the magnitude of excess risk attributed to the agent has been determined; that is, epidemiology addresses whether an agent can cause disease, not whether an agent did cause a specific plaintiff's disease.<ref name="green">{{cite book |last1= Green |first1= Michael D. |author2= D. Michal Freedman, and Leon Gordis |title= Reference Guide on Epidemiology |publisher= Federal Judicial Centre |url= http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/sciman06.pdf/$file/sciman06.pdf |access-date= 3 February 2008 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080227143925/http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/sciman06.pdf/$file/sciman06.pdf |archive-date= 27 February 2008 |df= dmy-all }}</ref>}}

In United States law, epidemiology alone cannot prove that a causal association does not exist in general. Conversely, it can be (and is in some circumstances) taken by US courts, in an individual case, to justify an inference that a causal association does exist, based upon a balance of [[probability]].

The subdiscipline of forensic epidemiology is directed at the investigation of specific causation of disease or injury in individuals or groups of individuals in instances in which causation is disputed or is unclear, for presentation in legal settings.