Report Urges Lawmakers to Look at Anti-Tobacco Campaigns in the Fight Against Obesity
The Urban Institute and the University of Virginia have issued a report claiming that lawmakers should study anti-tobacco campaigns as they consider taxing fattening foods and sugary drinks to curb the nation’s obesity problem.
Titled “Reducing Obesity: Policy Strategies from the Tobacco Wars,” the report asserts that increased education about smoking and taxing tobacco products brought the percentage of U.S. smokers down from 42.4 percent of the population in 1965 to less than 20 percent in 2007. Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, was quoted as saying that raising taxes “brings about the quickest, most measurable, and most pronounced decline in use.”
Policies suggested in the report include (i) the adoption of excise or sales taxes on “fattening food,” such as ice cream, sugary drinks and candy; (ii) the placement of “clear and simple labels,” such as traffic-light signpost labels, “conveying the health risks of fattening foods” on food packages, (iii) the posting of nutritional information on chain restaurant menus; and (iv) a ban on advertising and restrictions on the
marketing of foods with little nutritional value.
The report claims that a 10 percent tax on less-healthy food could generate more than $500 billion over 10 years, and if combined with a subsidy that lowered the price of fruits and vegetables by 10 percent, the net revenue would exceed $350 billion. See CBSNews.com/blogs, July 28, 2009.
