This term can also refer to the after-effects of weapon use, such as nuclear fallout, which has highest lethality nearest the deployment site, and in proportion to the subject's size and nature; e.g. a child or small animal.
Lethality can also refer to the after-effects of a major chemical or oil/gas process loss of containment, causing fire, explosion, or a toxic cloud.
Lethality curves can be developed in process safety to assess and describe mortality patterns around the accident location.
Blast overpressure, thermal radiation, toxicity and location affect the degree of lethality.
Lethality is also a term used by microbiologists and food scientists as a measure of the ability of a process to destroy bacteria.