Air pollution and risk of hospitalization for epilepsy: the role of farm use of nitrogen fertilizers and emissions of the agricultural air pollutant, nitrous oxide.

Abstract

The link between various air pollutants and hospitalization for epilepsy has come under scrutiny. We have proposed that exposure to air pollution and specifically the pervasive agricultural air pollutant and greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O), may provoke susceptibility to neurodevelopmental disorders. Evidence supports a role of N2O exposure in reducing epileptiform seizure activity, while withdrawal from the drug has been shown to induce seizure-like activity. Therefore, we show here that the statewide use of anthropogenic nitrogen fertilizers (the most recognized causal contributor to environmental N2O burden) is significantly negatively associated with hospitalization for epilepsy in all three pre-specified hospitalization categories, even after multiple pollutant comparison correction (p<.007), while the other identified pollutants were not consistently statistically significantly associated with hospitalization for epilepsy. We discuss potential neurological mechanisms underpinning this association between air pollutants associated with farm use of anthropogenic nitrogen fertilizers and hospitalization for epilepsy.