Taking Back the Streets and Sidewalks: How Safe Routes to School and Community Safety Initiatives Can Overcome Violence and Crime


Latino Health Walking Safety Crime and Violence prevention

Crime, violence and the fear of violence lead to reduced physical activity and loss of motivation to invest in health. According to a report from Safe Routes to School National Partnership (SRTS), 23% of Latino parents reported their neighborhoods were unsafe, compared with 8% of white parents. It is critical to address crime and violence for Latinas because 40% fewer girls than boys walk and bicycle to school and 52% of Latina girls are expected to get diabetes over the course of their lifetime. Additionally, Latinos are disproportionately burdened by traffic fatalities compared to whites. The Taking Back the Streets and Sidewalks report from SRTS is a reference for those working on violence prevention to increase the safety and health of children and youth, and ensure that ...

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Have Asthma? Avoid These Foods!



Asthma is a serious lung disease that disproportionately affects Latinos – especially children. Numerous factors, including housing situations, economic status, and access to healthcare, weigh heavily on many Latinos with asthma. One report found that Latino kids are 40% more likely to die from an asthma attack than their white peers! Nearly 20% of all Latino kids under the age of 18 also suffer from asthma. While asthma never really goes away, it can be managed. One way is to watch what you eat. Food has an influence on asthma symptoms and some foods can make asthma worse. While not everyone reacts the same way, here are some common foods to avoid if you or someone in your family has asthma. Dried Fruit Many kinds of dried fruits include preservatives that are ...

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New Health Fair Created to Reach Latinos in Georgia



Determining the best way to reach Latinos has always been one of the biggest questions that health care workers always ask. Language barriers, trust issues, and cultural differences are just some of the barriers that often create inequities for many Latinos. At Mercer University in Macon, GA (3.14% Latino population), students launched a community health fair aimed at reaching Latinos in an effort to alleviate some of the lingering health concerns of the community. “Since the Hispanic population is growing a lot, we need more representation, more people that can help because that affects the whole community,” said Dr. Jose Pino, a professor of foreign languages and literature at Mercer University in an interview with WMAZ. “In some institutions they don't have bilingual ...

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Pacific Island Nations Kick Junk Food Off the Islands


Salud America

With obesity rates rising for the Pacific Island Nations, islands like remote pacific island nation Vanuatu is planning to outlaw imported food throughout all the 12 inhabited islands. The plan is to keep government functions and tourist establishments free from junk food, and instead offer up healthy organic local foods like coconut, lobsters and more. Public health experts who study the island nations welcomed the ban according to the New York Times, that explains how millions of people are dealing with rising rates of type two diabetes, and it would be untenable to send patients abroad for dialysis treatment or kidney transplants. The World bank reported in 2014, that four Pacific island nations were dealing with female obesity rates of at least 50%. More than half of the ...

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New Healthy Drinks Act Is Proposed To Help Students Health In the Philippines



To help decrease the increasing rates of obesity and ensure greater health for students in the Philippines, a congressman announced on Monday, March 13th, 2017 a Healthy Drinks bill for all public schools in the country. The act hopes to improve the diet of over 21 million students in the country where more than 46,000 public schools will have to limit, if not ban, the sales of soft drinks and energy drinks in schools. Ang Edukasyon, party-list Rep. Salvador Belaro explained to radio dzBB, that the World Health Organization (WHO) has encouraged banning or limiting sugary drinks, and now that sugary beverages are so cheap in Filipino schools, it has become a popular drink of choice for students during recess time. However popular sugary drinks are for kids, they usually contain ...

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Silent Barriers to Biking in Communities of Color


Latino Health bike bicycle biking walking pedestrian justice barriers

"Transportation professionals should be more concerned about the personal safety of Black and Hispanic cyclists because they are in a position to change how the built environment either acts as a conduit or barrier to criminal activity," Charles T. Brown, a transportation researcher and adjunct professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers University, wrote in his report, Fear: A Silent Barrier to Bicycling in Black and Hispanic Communities. Brown saw a lack of research on transportation justice, which prompted him and James A. Sinclair, research manager at the New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center, to explore why some Black and Hispanic individuals choose not to bicycle; what prevents people of color who do bike from cycling more often; and how to encourage all ...

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Old Storage Room Gets Revamped Into A Garden in an Oklahoma High School



Gardens in schools are now becoming commonplace, as more and more schools see the benefits that gardens bring. Having a garden on campus not only opens up students learning to plant healthy foods but also encourages students to learn how to use science and math in gardens and may be used towards creating healthy eating environments in some cases. Rush Springs High School is now taking advantage of what used to be a storage room and transforming into an Aeroponic Tower Garden space. The class that goes with the garden is an entrepreneurial S.T.E.M class, teaching students not only how to grow healthy foods, but also allowing students to use food grown as a fundraiser to pay for more class projects, S.T.E.M teacher Larry Lance explained to local ABC News. Lance first came up ...

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Chancellor Confirms Sugary Beverage Tax



Sugary drink taxes and other policy restrictions on sugary drinks are growing in popularity across the globe to help reduce sugar intake in order to decrease rising obesity levels. Now British Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a two-tier levy of 18 pounds on drinks that have five grams of sugar per 100ml and the higher 24-pound rate on those with more than eight grams per 100ml. The British Soft Drinks Association opposes the tax, but the Obesity Health Alliance supports the tax. The tax set to be implemented starting in April 2018 doesn't include milk or pure fruit juice drinks but does include some alcoholic drinks. A spokeswoman from the Obesity Health Alliance told local news Sunderland Echo, "This is a significant step in the battle against obesity and the Government ...

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Tweetchat 3/21: How You Can Donate Blood to Save Lives!


latina blood donor gives blood

The average person has 8 pints of blood in their body. Health practitioners use about 40,000 pints of blood...every. single. day. There is a dramatic need for blood donations to help save lives, but fewer than 1 in 10 people actually donate. Latinos comprise less than 1% of all blood donors, bad news because experts say Latinos tend to have extremely important blood types. How can Latinos get more involved? On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, let’s use #SaludTues to tweet on why blood donation is vital, myths about donation, and strategies and resources on how to get more Latinos to donate blood: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Giving Life: Latinos & Blood Donation” TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2017 WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag ...

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