Geographic Information Systems, statistics, coding, and study design at CalEPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)

I interned for over a year at OEHHA, the office of the California Environmental Protection Agency charged with preserving and enhancing the health of California’s people and environment. Within the pesticide and environmental toxicology branch, I worked with research scientists and toxicologists to investigate a possible association between fumigant pesticide exposure and respiratory health outcomes. Fumigants are gaseous pesticides injected into the soil and sealed inside, but the gas can escape and travel miles in the air.

With data on pesticide use published by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, I selected communities in which to do full epidemiological studies on the health effects of a specific fumigant. I implemented the algorithm we developed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), R, and Python code.

Cumulative applications of a fumigant in California townships over five years.

An example of selected and unselected communities based on their proximity to fumigant applications.