A California Senate bill (S.B. 1000) that would require warning labels on sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) was put on hold April 28, 2014, over concerns about enforcement costs of the legislation. In a 6-0 vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee referred the bill to its suspense file, which means it will be reconsidered after the state budget has been prepared. Introduced in February by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), the bill would require labels warning of obesity and diabetes risks on all beverages with added sweeteners, including soda, tea, juice, and almond/rice/soy milk products, that have 75 or more calories per 12 ounces. Labels would also be required on self-serve soda dispensers and restaurant menus. According to news sources, the California Department of Public Health expects to incur between $150,000 and $300,000 in costs to adopt regulations to implement the bill and to allow local agencies to enforce its provisions. Further,…
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A French Senate committee has issued a report, “Taxation and Public Health: Evaluation of Behavioral Taxation,” urging lawmakers to implement a “behavioral tax” to counteract poor dietary habits and help cover health care expenditures associated with consumption of “unhealthy” foods. While emphasizing the need for a sugar-sweetened beverage tax, the report also advocates harmonizing tax rates on vegetable oils, aligning cigarette and other tobacco product taxes, and repealing value-added tax breaks for certain foods and drinks linked to increased health care costs. See Tax-News.com, March 20, 2014. Issue 518
Researchers with the University of Illinois, Chicago, Institute for Health Research and Policy have published a study allegedly concluding that, contrary to industry claims, sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes “do not have a negative impact on state-level employment.” Lisa Powell, et al., “Employment Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes,” American Journal of Public Health, February 2014. Using a macroeconomic simulation model to assess the employment impact of a 20-percent state-level SSB tax in California and Illinois, the study’s authors also factored “changes in SSB demand, substitution to non-SSBs, income effects, and government expenditures of tax revenues” into their final calculations. Based on this analysis, the study estimates that SSB sales would decline by $678.8 million in Illinois and $1.2 billion in California as the result of a 20-percent tax. At the same time, however, SSB taxes would increase government revenue by $554.3 million in Illinois and $940.4 million in California while sales revenue…
“Soda and other sugary drinks are popping up on city and state dockets across the nation, as lawmakers attempt to curb America’s consumption of certain beverages,” writes Time reporter Katy Steinmetz in this February 20, 2014, article summarizing recent campaigns to limit sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and energy drinks while raising revenue for government-backed health initiatives. In addition to San Francisco’s efforts to impose a SSB tax, Steinmetz notes similar proposals under consideration in Illinois and Berkeley, California, as well as attempts by Maryland and Los Angeles legislators to impose age restrictions on energy drink purchases. According to the article, San Francisco’s latest measure has garnered broad support from the city’s board of supervisors, “effectively guaranteeing that it will be on the ballot,” where it will need to gain approval from two-thirds of voters. But opponents of SSB taxation and the age restrictions on energy drinks have claimed that…
Drawing on lessons from tobacco regulation, Temple University Associate Professor Jennifer Pomeranz has authored an article recommending that state and local governments which opt to impose taxes on sugary beverages consider also adopting measures such as minimum price laws and prohibitions on price discounting and coupons to effectively deter consumption. Titled “Sugary Tax Policy: Lessons Learned from Tobacco,” the article claims that sugary beverage manufacturers can distribute the cost of a tax throughout their product lines, including diet beverages, bottled water and juice, thus making the imposition of minimum prices along with sufficiently high taxes a way to deter manufacturers from circumventing the price increase associated with a sugary beverage tax. Formerly with the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Pomeranz also calls for additional research on whether it would be feasible to condition retail licensing on compliance with measures adopted to reduce sugary beverage consumption. See American Journal…
California State Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) has introduced legislation (SB 1000) that would require all sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) containing more than 75 calories per 12-ounce serving to carry safety warnings. Co-sponsored by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Safety Warning Act would direct manufacturers, distributors and retailers to place the following notice on sealed containers, multipacks and vending machines, as well as any premises where SSBs are sold in unsealed containers: “STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.” The bill would also mandate the two-year retention of business records pertaining to the distribution, purchase or sale of SSBs as part of a statewide effort “to determine the quantity and type of sugar-sweetened beverages distributed, purchased or sold.” “When the science is this conclusive, the State of California has a responsibility to take steps to protect consumers,”…
The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) last week published its World Cancer Report 2014, a collaborative effort providing “a professional, multidisciplinary assessment of all aspects of the geographical distribution, biology, etiology, prevention, and control of cancer.” In addition to a chapter on cancer etiology as it relates to diet, obesity and physical activity, the report’s third edition includes a section focusing on regulatory and legislative initiatives—such as the taxation of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs)—designed to minimize behavior-related carcinogenic risk. It also features a “Perspectives” article by Harvard School of Public Health Professor Epidemiology and Nutrition Walter Willett that reviews “our current state of knowledge on diet, nutrition, and cancer.” Co-authored by Willett, the chapter on diet, obesity and physical activity warns that excess body fat “increases risk of cancers of the oesophagus, colon, pancreas, endometrium, and kidney, as well as post-menopausal breast cancer.” Singling…
According to news sources, the Navajo Nation Council has approved legislation that would impose a 2-percent increase in sales taxes on so-called junk food, which, if approved by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, would make it the first Native American-governed territory to do so. The council also passed legislation eliminating a 5 percent sales tax on fresh produce and other healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Known as the Healthy Diné Nation Act and aimed at curbing obesity and its related diseases, the legislation would increase the sales tax from 5 to 7 percent on sugar-sweetened beverages and snacks low in essential nutrients and high in salt, fat and sugar, including chips, candy, cookies, and pastries. According to some estimates, between 55 and 85 percent of the food available in grocery or convenience stores on the Navajo reservation is deemed junk food. The additional tax revenue would…
The Hawaii Senate has introduced legislation (S.B. 2693) that would prohibit the sale of regular soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in containers larger than 16 ounces. Noting that obesity is an increasingly “common and costly problem for the state,” and claiming that limiting the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages would “encourage healthier diets in the community, while offsetting economic costs associated with health care and obesity,” the bill specifically seeks to ban food establishments from (i) selling, offering for sale or providing SSBs in unsealed containers larger than 16 ounces and (ii) selling children’s meals that include such beverages. Issue 511
After analyzing reporting biases for 17 systematic reviews (SRs) assessing the association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and weight gain, EU researchers have allegedly concluded that financial conflicts of interest may influence the outcomes of such studies. Maira Bes-Rastrollo, et al., “Financial Conflicts of Interest and Reporting Bias Regarding the Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews,” PLoS Medicine, December 2013. Selected from PubMed, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases, the SRs under scrutiny were classified as either finding a positive association between SSB consumption and weight gain or finding no association at all. “Among those reviews without any reported conflict of interest, 83.3% of the conclusions (10/12) were that SSB consumption could be a potential risk factor for weight gain,” report the study’s authors. “In contrast, the same percentage of conclusions, 83.3% (5/6), of those SRs disclosing some financial conflict of interest with the food…
