4th National Latino Conference On Tobacco Prevention & Control.

One of the most influential components of LCAT’s activities is the National Latino Conference on Tobacco Prevention and Control. The theme of this year’s conference is “Marketing Disease to Latinos: Advocating for Social Change”. Every year the number of conference participants nearly doubles as the issue of how tobacco affects everyone’s health is of more and more importance. This year LCAT expects to welcome over 600 participants in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Conference Description

Latinos in the US confront many challenges, ranging from limited access to quality health care and education, to immigration and related issues. Sadly the use of tobacco and alcohol abuse only compounds these problems and prevents our community from developing to its full potential. While some people may not consider tobacco to be a serious issue within the Latino community, smoking is responsible for 87% of the lung cancer deaths in the United States. Overall, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among Latinos.

Given these statistics it is important to note that the tobacco and alcohol industry disproportionately advertise/market their product in minority communities and the Latino community is not obviously not the exception. That is why this year, the theme of the 4th National Latino Conference on Tobacco Prevention and Control is “Marketing Disease to Latinos: Advocating for Social Change”. LCAT’s goal in this event is to bring to the forefront the issue of Latinos in media; including how we are portrayed, how we can use the media to gain support/advocate for our issues and how the industry uses the media to achieve their marking and sales objectives among Latinos.

With over 600 expected attendees, key features of this conference will also include: Skills Building workshops (including grant writing), nationally recognized speakers and researchers, culturally competent anti-tobacco exhibits from around the county and much more.

September 15-16, 2005
Caribe Hilton
San Juan, Puerto Rico

For more information at http://www.nlcatp.org/events/Events4thNationalConference.cfm