Non-causal associations between a material agent and a disorder

Upon further consideration on the use of caused by/causative agent, I realize that there are published research studies in which a medication or other substance is linked to a disorder by virtue of an increased risk of the disorder occurring following exposure to the substance. Depending on the study design, the association may not prove a cause and effect relationship. Nonetheless, there may be a need to document this association in a single statement in order to assess future risk and for patient counselling. On the other hand, asserting definitive causality, may lead to undesired medicolegal implications. For disorders associated with other disorders, we have the leeway to avoid asserting causality by using co-occurrence or after. For disorders associated with material agents, we can only use associated with if we do not want to assert causality. One way around this would be to model these as disorder X after exposure to agent Y. Exposure to substances are currently modeled as events in SNOMED. The proposed model would require extending the range of after to include events. Thoughts?