Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax
Sugar-sweetened beverages are major contributors to childhood obesity. A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would generate revenue for supporting health care programs while also reducing consumption.
Latest Resources
- May 8, 2012 Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention Report from the Institute of Medicine with recommendations on how to combat obesity in the U.S.
- May 8, 2012 The ABCs of Beating Obesity The Institute of Medicine has released a report on multiple strategies for combating obesity. An excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages is among the top line recommendations.
- April 29, 2012 Are We Making Progress on Costs & Obesity? Let’s Step It Up… John McDonough calls on Massachusetts to lift the sales tax exemption on sugar sweetened beverages as a means of controlling health care costs and increasing public health.
- April 27, 2012 Special Report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity Reuters reports that in the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. At every level of government, the food and beverage industries won fight after fight during the last decade.
- April 11, 2012 Soda tax draws controversy Rhode Island lawmakers held a hearing on Tuesday on a bill which would impose a penny per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages. The bill is supported by the Alliance for a Healthier Rhode Island as an effort to combat childhood obesity.
SSB Tax News
- May 8, 2012 The ABCs of Beating Obesity The Institute of Medicine has released a report on multiple strategies for combating obesity. An excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages is among the top line recommendations.
- April 29, 2012 Are We Making Progress on Costs & Obesity? Let’s Step It Up… John McDonough calls on Massachusetts to lift the sales tax exemption on sugar sweetened beverages as a means of controlling health care costs and increasing public health.
- April 27, 2012 Special Report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity Reuters reports that in the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. At every level of government, the food and beverage industries won fight after fight during the last decade.
- April 11, 2012 Soda tax draws controversy Rhode Island lawmakers held a hearing on Tuesday on a bill which would impose a penny per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages. The bill is supported by the Alliance for a Healthier Rhode Island as an effort to combat childhood obesity.
- April 1, 2012 Is sugar toxic? This 60-Minutes report explores research on sugar and its contributions to a host of serious health conditions as well as its possible addictive qualities.
- April 4, 2012 Poll shows support for soda tax to fight obesity A new poll of California voters shows strong support for a tax on sugar sweetened beverages if the revenues are utilized to combat childhood obesity.
- March 13, 2012 Anti-Obesity Soda Tax Fails as Lobbyists Spend Millions: Retail Lobbyists for beverage companies are responding forcefully and with heavy spending to proposals across the U.S. to tax sugar sweetened beverages, including proposals in Mississippi and Hawaii.
- February 23, 2012 Sugar sweetened drinks linked to obesity, health problems Under the leadership of the Boston Public Health Commission, 10 Boston-area hospitals have pledged to implement several new measures to contribute to the city's ongoing efforts to to reduce the consumption of soda and sugar-sweetened beverages.
- February 1, 2012 Call For A National Campaign Against Sugar Researchers, providers, and advocates highlight the dangers of Americans' high consumption of sugar and argue that taxes on sugar sweetened beverages, among other measures could improve the problem.
- December 29, 2011 France approves soda tax France's Constitutional Council has approved an additional tax on soda as part of the country's efforts to curb obesity. The measure will also increase national revenue.
- December 15, 2011 Teens who see calorie info. buy fewer sugary drinks Research published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that when teens see signs alerting them to the caloric impact of sugar-sweetened beverages they are 40 to 50 percent less likely to purchase those beverages.
- December 15, 2011 Pediatricians launch campaign to tax sugary drinks at State House event Pediatricians gathered at the Massachusetts State House to urge legislators to adopt a tax on sugar sweetened beverages. The pediatricians were joined by individuals from the Boston Foundation and the Healthy People Healthy Economy campaign.
- September 1, 2011 Health advocates launch anti-soda campaign The Center for Science in the Public Interest is launching a campaign to reduce the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages as a means of improving public health outcomes and containing health care costs. Boston is one of the campaign's target cities.
- August 31, 2011 Teen Boys Drink 273 Calories of Sugary Drinks Per Day A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Americans consume significant amounts of sugar sweetened beverages with teen boys being among the highest consumers.
- August 25, 2011 New report on policy options for regulation of sugar sweetened beverages A new report from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity outlines policy options for regulating sugar sweetened beverages to support public health.
- August 25, 2011 'Straw' poll: Income divides soda drinkers A new study of New York city residents indicates that individuals in low income neighborhood consume more sugar sweetened beverages than those in higher income neighborhoods. The study also demonstrated that overall consumption has declined recently.
- August 23, 2011 Less soda, thinner kids A Boston Globe editorial, commenting on the Boston schools system's ban on sugar sweetened beverages, encourages all schools to enact the ban and other anti-junk food measures ahead of a mandated national ban next year.
- August 19, 2011 U.S. Rejects Mayor’s Plan to Ban Use of Food Stamps to Buy Soda The U.S. Department of Agriculture has denied a request by New York city to ban use of federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), or food stamps, funds for purchasing soda. The measure was a controversial attempt to reduce obesity.
- August 9, 2011 Study: Boston schools’ sugary drinks ban paid off A new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that Boston public school students are consuming fewer sugary drinks both at home and in school since the 2004 enactment of a ban on selling sugar sweetened beverages on school property.
- August 1, 2011 Soda is Cheap and Staying Cheap This graph depicts the cost of soda relative to the consumer price index and the cost of fresh produce. It also demonstrates the revenue potential from a tax on sugar sweetened beverages.
- July 23, 2011 Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables This op-ed discusses the part sugar sweetened beverages play in the obesity epidemic facing the U.S., particularly children, and the role taxes on these beverages could play in shaping consumer decisions and raising needed revenues for health programs.
- July 29, 2011 Taxing sugary drinks should be key tool in fighting obesity We need to use every policy tool at our disposal to address this issue, and taxing sugary beverages is a good start.
- July 28, 2011 Americans Cut Back on Sugar Sweetened Beverages A new study by Emory University finds that Americans are consuming less sugar than they were in 2000. The reduction comes mainly from drinking fewer sodas and sugar sweetened beverages with researchers linking the drop to economic and health concerns.
- July 21, 2011 Epidemic of Obesity in U.S. Kids Began in Late '90s A new report points to increases in adolescent BMI beginning in the 1990s and rising steadily since then. The study did not address causes although the authors discuss possible factors as well as health impacts as these adolescents become adults.
- July 6, 2011 Research conflicted on benefits of soda tax in fighting obesity Researchers discuss findings around the impact that sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have on soda consumption.
- June 17, 2011 Teens skimp on exercise, but not sodas: CDC Roughly two-thirds of high school students drank at least one sugary beverage a day, including soda, sports drinks like Gatorade and other sweetened beverages.
- May 11, 2011 Poll finds support for soda tax The Boston Foundation, the largest public charity in New England is working to apply the state sales tax to soda and candy, a measure aimed at raising revenue and curbing consumption.
- April 26, 2011 Poll Shows Support for Tax If Funds Directed to Health Care Programs Vermonters were asked if they supported a proposed one-cent per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. 27-point-6 percent strongly oppose the idea, while 27-point-2 percent strongly favor it.
- February 13, 2010 Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke? This New York Times Article asks, "is soda the new tobacco?"
- November 5, 2009 Three Reasons to Support a Soda Tax The Atlantic article presents three reasons why a small tax on sugary soda drinks would be a really good idea.
NEACH Materials
- November 15, 2010 Challenges Facing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Campaigns Three brief case studies of recent SSB tax campaigns, which serve to highlight the challenges faced in moving an SSB tax proposal forward.
- November 15, 2010 Rationale for a New England Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Campaign A regional SSB tax would address three current children’s health care priorities: (1) raising revenue for states, (2) combating the childhood obesity epidemic, and (3) establishing a new funding source for CHIP, which is set to expire in 2015.
- October 5, 2010 Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Policy Brief A four page brief on the four key decision points that must be addressed related to a sugar-sweetened beverage tax.
Data & Research
- May 8, 2012 Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention Report from the Institute of Medicine with recommendations on how to combat obesity in the U.S.
- March 20, 2012 U.S. soda consumption fell faster in 2011 New data reveals that carbonated soft-drinks are playing a declining role in Americans' sugar-sweetened beverage consumption while bottled beverage sales - such as juices, teas and sport drinks - continue to rise.
- March 17, 2012 More bad news for soda drinkers A study from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Children’s Hospital Boston indicates that drinking sugar sweetened beverages raised the heart attack risk of men studied by as much as 20%.
- January 9, 2012 New Study Predicts Nationwide Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Would Prevent Thousands of Heart Attacks, Strokes and Cases of Diabetes Researchers at Columbia University and the University of California, concluded that a penny-per-ounce tax would reduce consumption of sugary drinks by 15 percent among adults and in ten years would prevent thousands of strokes and deaths.
- November 5, 2011 Rage ensues as study shows soda ads target minorities Community members and legislators in New York have responded angrily to findings that soda companies aggressively target minority youth in marketing campaigns. The study was conducted by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.
- October 31, 2011 Despite industry promises, Yale study finds unprecedented marketing of sugary drinks to youth A new study from Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found that teens exposure to soda ads increased dramatically in the past two years and that soda manufacturers are targeting minority youth.
- June 28, 2011 SSB Tax Legislation Filed in 2011 (Yale Rudd Center) A map of the 15 states that filed SSB tax legislation in 2011 (as of May 2011).
- March 26, 2011 Estimating the potential of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce consumption and generate revenue (Preventive Medicine) A method for estimating revenues from an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages that governments of various levels could direct towards obesity prevention.
- May 1, 2010 Soda Taxes, Soft Drink Consumption, And Children’s Body Mass Index (Health Affairs) This article examines the link between SSB taxes and reduced rates of consumption.
- October 15, 2009 The Public Health and Economic Benefits of Taxing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (New England Journal of Medicine) This journal article suggests that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would have strong positive effects on reducing consumption and the potential to generate substantial revenue to prevent obesity and address other external costs.
- October 14, 2009 Soft Drink Taxes (Yale Rudd Center) A policy brief with arguments for SSB taxes and policy recommendations to consider when planning an SSB tax campaign.
- October 6, 2009 Taxing Sugared Beverages Would Help Trim State Budget Deficits, Consumers’ Bulging Waistlines, and Health Care Costs (Center for Science in the Public Interest) A four-page brief on how states and consumers would benefit from sugar-sweetened beverage taxes.
- April 30, 2009 Ounces of Prevention — The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages (New England Journal of Medicine) This journal article found that sugar-sweetened beverages may be the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic.
Other Resources
- Soda Makers Scramble to Fill Void as Sales Drop As schools and local governments take steps to decrease Americans' sugar-laden soda consumption, companies such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been forced to find new strategies for maintaining revenues.
- Center for Science in the Public Interest Information on the harmful effects of soda and the benefits of taxing SSBs.
- Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity is a non-profit research and public policy organization devoted to improving the world’s diet, preventing obesity, and reducing weight stigma.
