Tobacco & Fast Food Easier to Get for Latino Students

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Schools with more Latino students are more likely to have fast-food restaurants and tobacco retailers within “easy reach” of them, according to a new study.

The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed more than 18,000 public schools and found that more than 50% of Latino-majority schools were within 800 meters of both tobacco and fast food outlets

Only 21% of white-majority schools were.

“Schools are places where we expect to be healthy, supportive environments for kids, but right outside the door (students) could be exposed to unhealthy influences,” author Heather D’Angelo of Westat in Rockville, MD, said in a recent Reuters interview. “I was surprised that there were so many tobacco outlets near schools.”

In Latino neighborhoods in general, fast food and corner stores often outnumber and are used more than supermarkets and farmers’ markets, resulting in inadequate consumption of healthy foods and overconsumption of unhealthy foods, according to a Salud America! research review.

Fast food and tobacco also were “more easily accessible for older kids,” suggesting the possibility that retailers at these types of establishments were possibly aware of and ready to take advantage of “the autonomy and purchasing power of older youths.”

“In this country we have a history of commercially taking advantage of poor, less educated, and vulnerable populations,” said epidemiologist Steven H. Kelder, co-director of the Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Austin. “Documenting health disparities highlights the need to address uncovered problems.”

Study authors and other experts suggest the need for tighter restrictions at the point of sale, or counter-marketing to students of color.

Licensing or zoning policies could restrict students’ exposure to tobacco and unhealthy foods, more research on neighborhood disparities is needed in order to change public policy, according to D’Angelo in the Reuters interview.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

23.7

percent

of Latino children are living in poverty

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