‘Smoke-Free San Antonio’ Campaign Readies Launch



The Smoke-Free San Antonio campaign will have its public unveiling at 9:30 a.m. Friday, May 7, 2010, at the Baptist Medical Center Downtown, 111 Dallas Street, in San Antonio. In a press conference, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and City Council member Justin Rodriguez will give remarks and discuss the process behind creating a smoke-free city. Political pollster Mike Baselice, of Baselice and Associates, also will share poll results of city residents' opinions of a smoke-free ordinance. Attendees are welcome. For details, visit ...

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S.A. Teens Photograph Their Neighborhoods to Illustrate Tobacco Problems



SAN ANTONIO—Memorial High School student Victor Hernandez (at right) points to his photograph of a smoked cigarette butt lodged in the crack of a sidewalk. The photo caption starts: “Cigarettes get between everything.” “People might dream to be a doctor, lawyer – then cigarettes get introduced,” Victor said of the photo’s meaning. “With every cigarette it gets harder and harder to quit, you get closer to death. Your original dream goes away.” Victor is one of eight students from Edgewood Independent School District’s Kennedy and Memorial high schools who recently partook in a “Photovoice Smoke-Free” project, where students took photos and wrote captions to visually describe the problem of tobacco to policy- and decision-makers. Read more about the students and ...

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Spanish-Language Ads Get Message Across for ‘Quit Smoking’ Lines



It pays to advertise in Spanish if you want Spanish speakers to use a telephone helpline to quit smoking, according to a new study, Newswise reports. A study of usage of the Colorado QuitLine before and during a Spanish-language media campaign found that more Latinos called during and after the campaign and a greater percentage of those who called successfully quit smoking, according to the news report. Smoking cessation phone services offer counseling or coaching on how to quit smoking and sometimes offer nicotine replacement therapy products. Latinos who called the Colorado QuitLine because of an ad campaign were significantly younger and more likely to be uninsured and less educated. The seven-day abstinence rates for Latinos who dialed in during the campaign was 41 percent, compared ...

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San Antonio Students Help Put Spotlight on Tobacco Cessation



Eight San Antonio high-school students, including several Latinos, will be recognized on Jan. 22, 2010, for their outstanding work in a Photovoice project that highlights youth tobacco concerns in the community. For the project, students from Kennedy and Memorial high schools in San Antonio identified important issues related to tobacco through group discussions and Photovoice, which blends a grassroots approach to photography and social action, to empower the students to take social action within their community. Students created presentations using their photos and captions. An award ceremony for the students starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, at the Casa de Mexico International Building at the Alameda Koehler Auditorium in San Antonio. The public is invited to this free ...

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New Bi-Cultural Anti-Smoking Campaign Targets Latino Youths



Smoking makes you "Stupidiota." That's the simple thought behind the new bi-cultural youth smoking prevention campaign by DC Tobacco Free Families, which seeks to empower Latino youths to become the messengers and stewards of this cause. A powerful and fascinating creation of Communications-Marketing agency, Elevation, Stupidiota features two TV PSAs inspired by popular video games (The SIMS and World of War Craft), a radio PSA with a catchy Reggaeton beat and other guerilla marketing tools. The campaign equips youth with the tools they need to stay tobacco free and proclaim No Soy Stupidiota (I ain’t no Stupidiota). For more information on Stupidiota, click here. Watch the stupidiota PSA inspired by World of War Craft here or ...

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Latinos, Here’s Help to Quit Smoking



Need inspiration or help finding the way to quit smoking? There is good news: The Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), the team behind SaludToday, has developed ¡Buena Vida! A Guide to Help You Quit Smoking. The booklet offers Latinos info, tools and tips for quitting smoking, and tells the stories of five Latinos who have quit, like Estefanía Villareal (pictured at right). Read the booklet in English. Read the booklet in Spanish. Find out more about the IHPR's materials to help Latinos quit ...

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Study: Adapting to U.S. Culture Can Improve Latino Men’s Success Quitting Smoking



Latino men who are more adapted to U.S. culture are more likely to quit smoking than their less-acculturated counterparts, according to research by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center released Dec. 3, 2009, from the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. The study of 271 Latino smokers who called a Spanish-language smoking cessation quitline examined the influence of gender and indicators of acculturation on the ability to quit smoking. Men who had been in the U.S. for up to five years had about 20 percent smoking abstinence rate at three months after the quitline program. But more than 35 percent of men who had been in the U.S. for 23-76 years abstained. Those who preferred to view news and entertainment mainly or exclusively in English ...

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Story: Villareal Freshens Up Her Life



Ask Estefanía Evia Villareal (pictured) the best thing about not smoking any more and the 21-year-old will give you a variety of answers, beginning with the way she feels every morning when she wakes up. “First of all," she said, "that feeling of being fresh – being clean, fresh, the smell of my sheets and my clothes, (the feeling in) my mouth, my throat." Estefanía, a recent graduate of UT San Antonio who plans to get her teaching certificate so she can eventually teach elementary school children, had been a smoker for the past five years, starting in high school. Earlier this year she decided to kick the habit. It took a little while and there were some stops and starts, but when she finally quit smoking, she did it one day at a time. She walks for an hour three times a ...

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Story: Rodriguez Quits Smoking for Her Family



Rosalie Rodriguez (pictured at left) has been a smoker for the past 14 years – pretty much all of her adult life. Now she’s ready to change that, and she’s set a date to quit. What made her quit? Rosalie considered quitting for the sake of her own health after her father, a smoker for 38 years, developed bladder cancer as a result of smoking. “I had never even heard of cancer of the bladder being caused by smoking,” said Rosalie. “But then I thought, you know what? I need to stop because (smoking can lead to) lung cancer and heart disease – all that and more.” She has another big reason for quitting – her 14-year-old son. “I’m doing it for health reasons because I want to be there as long as I can to see my son and his kids and to have a longer life," she ...

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