Eggen 8 Jean Macchiaroli Eggen, Professor of Law, Widener University School of Law; member, Widener Health Law Institute. Connecticut Law Review December, 2008 41 Conn. L. Rev. 561 Article: The Synergy of Toxic Tort Law and Public Health: Lessons From a Century of Cigarettes lexis
n151 Epidemiology may be defined as "[t]he study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states in human and other animal populations. Epidemiological studies involve surveillance, observation, hypothesis-testing, and experiment." Stedman's Medical Dictionary 582 (Marjory Spraycar et al. eds., 26th ed. 1995). The task of epidemiology is to examine the relationship between a disease and a particular factor (such as cigarette smoking) to determine if a causal connection exists. Bert Black & David E. Lilienfeld, Epidemiologic Proof in Toxic Tort Litigation, 52 Fordham L. Rev. 732, 750 (1984). The epidemiologist examines this relationship in the context of populations, comparing the disease experiences of people exposed to the factor with those not so exposed. Although the epidemiologist utilizes statistical methods, the ultimate goal is to draw a biological inference concerning the relationship of the factor to the disease's etiology and/or to its natural history. . . . It is an integrative, eclectic science utilizing concepts and methods from other disciplines, such as statistics, sociology and demography for the study of disease in populations. Id. at 750-51.
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