As politicians seek ways to combat the obesity epidemic here in the U.S., taxes and even bans on sodas have been floated in cities across the U.S. When former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg first tried to tax and then limit the size of sodas in the Big Apple, howls of “the nanny state is here” roared across the country. Beverage industry trade groups screamed bloody murder over the cap on soda sizes that could be sold in NYC, and eventually New York State’s Court of Appeals ruled against the ban, saying the city’s health board lacked any such authority. Now an ex-mayor, Bloomberg has not given up. And a recent study on the effects of a similar policy in Berkeley, CA may give him even more ammunition as a campaign he bankrolled in Philadelphia was approved by its city council earlier this year.
As politicians seek ways to combat the obesity epidemic here in the U.S., taxes and even bans on sodas have been floated in cities across the U.S. When former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg first tried to tax and then limit the size of sodas in the Big Apple, howls of “the nanny state is here” roared across the country. Beverage industry trade groups screamed bloody murder over the cap on soda sizes that could be sold in NYC, and eventually New York State’s Court of Appeals ruled against the ban, saying the city’s health board lacked any such authority. Now an ex-mayor, Bloomberg has not given up. And a recent study on the effects of a similar policy in Berkeley, CA may give him even more ammunition as a campaign he bankrolled in Philadelphia was approved by its city council earlier this year.
According to the American Journal of Pediatric Health, consumption of sugary drinks such as cola (technically sugar sweetened beverages, or SSBs) in the Bay Area city of 117,000 decreased by 21 percent since the city implemented the tax in March 2015. Meanwhile, the consumption of these sugary drinks increased in nearby Oakland and San Francisco by 4 percent. The study’s authors based their conclusions in part on almost 1,000 questionnaires distributed across the city to residents.
This is one of the first studies gauging the effects of a soda tax (as other initiatives have been voted down or repealed), so we are still in the Wild West of sorting out the effectiveness of these measures. Nevertheless, advocates for regulations, bans or taxes on sugary drinks are going to tout this study, giving beverage companies in turn more headaches.
The penny-per-ounce tax was approved by voters by a 3-to-1 margin in November 2014 despite “Big Soda” spending over $2 million to defeat the measure at the ballot box. Supporters of the measure, including Bloomberg, raised $650,000 in their quest to pass the measure.
Continue reading at ENN affiliate Triple Pundit.
Image credit: Oleg Sklyanchuk/Flickr
