Exposure to low-dose radiation, although not able to cause immediate harm, can be associated with long-term harmful effects [ 109].
Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
But the plan was shelved after Pitney Bowes, a major supplier of ink cartridges, appealed to postal regulators who answer to Congress, saying that the service would cause "immediate harm" to its business.
In 2007, for example, Richard Carmona, then surgeon general, testified to Congress that Mr Bush's officials had delayed and tried to "water down" a report which concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
"The arbitrations are going forward," the company bemoaned in its filing, "causing immediate harm to Chipotle".
The remaining three images denormalized tobacco as an everyday product by recasting it as toxic and deadly, akin to a poison that would cause immediate harm.
Exposure to the effects of climate change at the early stage of development can cause immediate harm or damage that becomes evident later in life, resulting in lasting effects over a lifetime and even over generations (8).
Recording errors, although perhaps less likely to cause immediate harm to a patient, also have potential to impact on care particularly in the post-anaesthetic care unit and when patients are handed over from one anaesthetist to another.
"Although the levels of pesticide residues reported [in the CSE] study are unlikely to cause immediate harm to consumers, chronic effects following long-term exposure may occur, particularly in susceptible populations such as children," says Rolf U. Halden, cofounder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health.
Caring neglect refers to failings in care that are below the threshold of being proceduralised (and are unlikely to cause immediate harm), yet lead patients, family and the public to believe that staff are unconcerned about the emotional and physical wellbeing of patients.
