The first-ever city-by-city breakdown of deaths from heart disease and stroke in California shows that most cities in Orange County have a mortality rate at or below the state average, although several communities have above average death rates.

The researchers, from UC San Francisco and the California Department of Health Services, pointed out that, aside from the risks posed by air pollution, it is not simply physical presence in the cities that defines heart attack risk. Instead, a person's address is a tip-off of possibly shared social, economic and cultural factors that increase risk. Those factors include access to health care, diet, smoking and poverty.

Statewide, the cities with the highest death rates from stroke were Danville, Redwood City, Santa Barbara, Whittier and Yucaipa. A person living in Yucaipa is three times as likely to die from stroke as a resident of Monterey Park, the city with the lowest rate. No city in Orange County had a mortality rate from stroke that was significantly higher or lower than the state average.