Public Health & Health Science Division, ULAB

California’s agriculture sector relies heavily on pesticides, with an estimated use of 176million pounds per year. While these pesticides do increase crop yield, long-term exposure toboth organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides has been found to result in variousneurological effects, such as epilepsy. We seek to explore the relationship between exposure to pesticides in agricultural areas of California and epilepsy, and to evaluate the role of structural determinants such as insurance coverage, lack of transportation, unstable housing, and distance from epilepsy specialists in terms of health care utilization. We seek to demonstrate the link between chronic pesticide exposure and increased susceptibility to epilepsy by analyzing studiesand public health surveillance data and by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 studies. We found that uninsured patients have 86% lower access to specialty care, transportation barriers reduce access by 58%, and housing instability can increase acute readmission by 87%. We also found that pesticide residues are in nearly 80% of state air samples, despite the fact that access to neurological medical services is extremely limited for uninsured and rural populations. There is additionally no public transportation access within most agricultural communities, and yet, individuals with epilepsy often cannot drive due to restrictions placed on them because of seizures. Thus, the impacts of epilepsy rely largely on the intersection of environment and healthcare inequality. We therefore seek to examine the roles ofpublic health research and epidemiology to understand the factors that may be contributing to the development and treatment structure of epilepsy in agricultural communities in California.