Soda taxes do more than discourage consumption
Soda聽taxes聽can do more than reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages鈥攖hey can improve the health and economic wellbeing of communities, found a series of reports published by Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. CHOICES explored the long-term cost-effectiveness of聽soda聽taxes聽in four city-specific reports, focusing on Albany, Oakland, and San Francisco, California, and Boulder, Colorado. Each city passed聽soda聽tax聽measures in the November 2016 United States elections, and the reports concluded that these policy measures could reduce rates of obesity and prevent diabetes, leading to a long-term reduction in healthcare costs nationwide.
Despite research into the health costs of heavy consumption of sugary drinks, beverage companies have met the moves to implement聽soda聽taxes聽in cities across the nation with aggressive anti-tax聽campaigns. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), regular consumption of sweetened drinks like聽soda聽is聽. Regular consumption of sugary drinks can increase the likelihood of聽, and researchers have found that聽聽for both children and adults.
But, since 2009,聽聽in efforts to prevent such聽taxes聽at the local level. In the San Francisco Bay Area,聽soda聽companies聽, where community members were divided. The CHOICES reports found that these very communities may stand to benefit the most from聽soda聽taxes, where residents tend to consume more sugary beverages and demonstrate higher rates of obesity and diabetes. The聽taxes, which range from one to two cents per ounce, aim to discourage consumption of sugary drinks while providing an additional source of revenue for municipal governments. And they work鈥攃onsumers buy fewer sugary drinks,聽聽about healthy eating and obesity and diabetes prevention.
The CHOICES reports found that聽taxes聽on sugar-sweetened beverages would be cost saving in all four cities. In Oakland, California the study predicts that US$30.4 dollars would be saved in health care costs per US$1 invested in implementing and managing a聽soda聽tax. 2,140 cases of obesity could be prevented, and citywide, 47 deaths prevented. In San Francisco, the predicted number of deaths prevented jumped to 89, and in Boulder, Colorado, health care savings could be as high as US$42.2 per one dollar spent establishing the聽tax.
This story originally appeared on .
