Editor:

Thank you for the article on Humboldt County death rates, and the research conducted by the California Center for Rural Policy. This is important information to have in order to improve our health outcomes.

However, I do think your subtitle -- "Your odds of dying are higher in Humboldt County than anywhere else in the state" -- is inaccurate, since our odds of dying are exactly the same wherever we live. The Onion was more factual when they ran the headline "World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100 percent."

Marylee Bytheriver, Eureka