Problem & Objective
Agricultural pesticide use varies widely by crop and region and may contribute to localized increases in preventable healthcare utilization (e.g., asthma, respiratory distress). Public health agencies and Medicaid programs need data-driven tools to target preventative interventions, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), under constrained budgets.

Objective: Build a county or region-level predictive risk model to identify regions where pesticide exposure is associated with elevated healthcare burden, enabling targeted, high-ROI public health and IPM investments.  Real world stakeholders include insurers, policy makers, hospital systems, public health departments.

Data & Approach
The following possible data will construct a pesticide exposure risk index -
• CDC PLACES (County-level health indicators): https://www.cdc.gov/places/data/index.html
• USGS / EPA Pesticide Use Estimates: https://water.usgs.gov/monitoring/pesticides/pnsp/usage/maps/
• USDA Cropland D