Report: Redes Meeting Tackles Key Latino Cancer Issues



Perspectives on key Latino cancer issues from the brightest minds in the field are featured in a new report from the 10th Annual Redes En Acción National Steering Committee Meeting. The meeting, held recently in San Antonio, celebrated the 10th year of Redes, a national Latino cancer research network funded by the National Cancer Institute and headquartered at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Redes has tested novel interventions to improve access to care and screening. We've trained the next generation of Latino cancer researchers. We've raised awareness of Latino cancer challenges and solutions. Read the visually stunning new report highlights these achievements and highlights new work in ...

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San Antonio Smoking Ordinance Wouldn’t Snuff Out Restaurant/Bar Industry



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 ...

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Join Smoke-Free San Antonio on Facebook



The Smoke-Free San Antonio campaign, which support a 100% smoke-free city to protect the health of our community, is now on Facebook. "Like" the campaign on Facebook today! Learn more about the orgaization ...

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Teens’ Photos Tell Story of Tobacco Problems in Minority Neighborhoods



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-makers. Researchers from the Institute for Health ...

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‘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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San Antonio gets $15M to fight child obesity



A $15.6 million federal grant to San Antonio will serve as a “rallying point” in the city's ongoing effort to fight childhood obesity, Mayor Julián Castro said Friday, according to the San Antonio Express-News: The grant was funded through stimulus money and hailed by first lady Michelle Obama, who has taken on the battle against childhood obesity. That's an ongoing struggle in San Antonio, where a recent study showed 30 percent of children age 8 to 10 are obese, with Hispanic children suffering higher rates than others. One of the several ways the city will approach the goal of healthier children is to establish an “Active Living Council of San Antonio” targeting physical activity in the city. On the nutrition side, the city will work with schools, churches, restaurants, ...

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Video: S.A. Mayor to Roll Out Fitness Council



Watch a video of Julián Castro, a Latino and mayor of San Antonio, Texas, who is preparing to roll out a new fitness council for the city. Castro also talks about how he stays fit in office in the video, which is from ...

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RWJF Grants Help Communities Like San Antonio, TX, Tackle Child Obesity



The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded multi-year grants to 41 communities across the country in an expansion of a landmark program to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. One of the sites is San Antonio, Texas, one of the nation's most historic cities, and one of the heaviest. Local leaders in this predominantly Hispanic city have been addressing the issue through multiple lenses as they work to combat rates of obesity and overweight as high as 76 percent. The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) and San Antonio Restaurant Association recently formed a partnership to press for healthier restaurant menus. By introducing options with lower calories, fat and sugar, they hope, restaurants will create greater consumer demand for such foods. A ...

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