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According to the L.A. Daily News, a German study funded partly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that people prone to a heart attack face triple their usual risk as a result of traffic whether they are in cars, on bicycles or on mass transit.
Here at LAist, we did a little bit of our own research, taking the German study one step further in talking to Los Angeles residents. Our goal was to canvas their thoughts on the traffic/heart-attack/death connection, and the results were startling. Based on local residents in five separate areas of town, the Top 3 believed-causes of death (other than traffic) were ranked as follows:
Beverly Hills
1. Botox poisoning.
2. Social outcast syndrome.
3. Multi-millionaires not being happy with all that money and committing suicide. (This suggestion was usually met with hilarious laughter and followed by a "just kidding.")
Hollywood
1. Alcohol poisoning.
2. The trampling-over and subsequent death of star-watchers at a mediocre movie premiere.
3. A bad piece of fried chicken.
The San Fernando Valley
1. Bad frozen yogurt infected with E coli.
2. Heat-stroke.
3. Getting badly beaten by Westsiders who are sick of hearing how anything you could ever want can be found on Ventura Boulevard.
Silverlake
1. Choking on an over-abundance of incense fumes.
2. Veganism.
3. Culture-shock. (Or lack thereof.)
The Westside
1. Bad lox.
2. Bad sushi.
3. Bad attitude.
Please be aware that LAist's way of polling may not be fully legitimate, realistic or guaranteed to represent each suburb of Los Angeles in a responsible way. We do, however, believe that no matter how skewed our results may be -- they are most often 110% correct.
