AHA/ASA volunteer expert Larry B. Goldstein, M.D. offers perspective (via Skype) on ISC 19 abstract 9.  He is the Ruth L. Works Professor, the Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Co-Director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute in Lexington, KY.
copyright American Heart Association 

"They did find this association with air pollution where you're living, but also what we typically know is places that are usually high in air pollution and other types of environmental types of risk are also associated with low socioeconomic status areas, unemployment, low income being brought in, which is also associated with access to medical care and utilization of medical care and also, also associated with unhealthy behaviors, and unhealthy diets, maybe eating unhealthy diets. So all of those things all right there together contribute. So what an individual would need to know is I live in a high risk area. So if you live in the stroke belt, or you live in an area with high risk, and probably also living in an area that has high pollution, so that's even more of a situation for an individual to one, watch what their eating, and to try to develop a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise. It certainly means don't smoke. It also means loose a little bit of weight and with regards with stroke, where blood pressure is the top of the list, with regards to risk factors. It means making sure I know what my blood pressure is and making sure that if I have high blood pressure, I'm taking my medication. Knowing that I'm in a high risk area, knowing that I'm at high risk personally, and that's gonna be even more of a emphasis that I need to develop that healthy lifestyle and certainly watch my blood pressure and cholesterol."