Temporality is the one Bradford Hill consideration universally regarded as necessary: the exposure must precede the outcome. In toxic tort it extends to requiring an interval consistent with the disease's known latency.
Reverse causation is the failure it guards against.
Alternative Names:
Temporality, Temporal Sequence
Why it Matters?
The necessity of temporality makes it the cleanest causation defense available, since an exposure occurring after symptom onset cannot be the cause regardless of any other evidence. Medical records establishing when symptoms first appeared relative to the alleged exposure are the essential evidence. Latency adds a second temporal requirement, excluding exposures too recent to have produced the disease.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Why is temporality necessary rather than merely supportive?
What evidence establishes it?
