Congratulations, Houston! A few days ago a large group of minority health coalitions, doctors and elected officials celebrated the third anniversary of Houston’s successful smoking ban urging Houstonians “to see their doctors and put down their cigarettes for good.” “Smoke Free for 3,” a campaign lead by the Hispanic Health Coalition, Asian American Health Coalition, African American Health Coalition, Native American Health Coalition, and Houston Communities for Safe Indoor Air (HCSIA), recognized the City of Houston’s leadership and success in creating more smoke free workplaces and public spaces effective Sept. 1, 2007. However, despite the success in public policies, smoking continues to be a significant personal health issue for many Houstonians, particularly for ...
Latinos generally have lower rates of smoking than other racial/ethnic groups with the exception of Asian Americans. However, smoking remains a continuing and serious problem in the Latino community. Get all the key facts on Latino smoking from the American Lung Association. And if you're a Latino who is thinking about quitting smoking, be sure to check out the Buena Vida health magazine in English or Spanish that tells the stories of five Latinos and how they kicked the habit and what it meant for their lives. The Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind Salud Today, produced the magazine and other tobacco prevention ...
If San Antonio ends up prohibiting smoking in indoor workplaces, its restaurants and bars are not likely to lose patrons to the few and geographically separated establishments outside the city limits that do allow smoking, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The analysis identified and mapped the 165 licensed-to-serve alcohol establishments in 30 incorporated towns outside San Antonio, but within Bexar County. The vast majority (117) of those establishments already are smoke-free. The remaining 48 that do allow smoking are fairly geographically separated from each other and, even if weighed as a whole, don’t have the capacity to sustain an influx of smoking customers if ...
Rave reviews are coming in for a visually stunning booklet featuring minority teens' anti-smoking photos from a project for which eight San Antonio high-school students took photos and wrote captions to visually describe tobacco problems in their neighborhoods to policy-makers. "This is a wonderful example of how to invigorate public health messaging and make it 'sing' within one of your priority populations. The involvement of youth in the planning and execution of the project in a meaningful way is something that should be replicated throughout other areas of the State. Congratulations to...all the 'gang' at the UT Health Science Center for working with the San Antonio Tobacco Prevention and Control Coalition to carry it out!" said Gail Sneden, a project director of Applied Research ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
