Cities that imposed taxes on sugary drinks noticed costs rise and consumption fall by 33%. Analysis reveals sugary drinks enhance the chance of diet-related ailments.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Cities that imposed taxes on sugary drinks noticed costs rise and consumption fall. That’s in line with a examine printed in the present day within the journal Jama Well being Discussion board. Researchers say this supplies extra proof that these controversial taxes actually do work. Becoming a member of me to speak it by, NPR’s Maria Godoy. Hey there.
MARIA GODOY, BYLINE: Hello.
KELLY: So which cities have achieved this? What are we speaking right here?
GODOY: Effectively, we’re speaking about 5 U.S. cities that launched the taxes between 2017 and 2018 – so Oakland and San Francisco in California, Seattle, Boulder, Colo., and Philadelphia. The taxes ranged from 1 to 2 cents per ounce. So for a two-liter bottle, that may be about 67 cents to $1.30 further in taxes. These research have seemed on the impact of soda taxes earlier than, however they often studied one metropolis at a time. This new examine checked out a number of cities on the similar time to get an thought of what may occur if these taxes had been extra widespread.
KELLY: And what did occur? What did the researchers discover?
GODOY: Effectively, you recognize, costs went up by about 33%, and purchases went down by about the identical quantity, 33%. Scott Kaplan is an economics professor on the U.S. Naval Academy. He led the examine. And he says that is really an enormous impact.
SCOTT KAPLAN: In different phrases, for each 1% enhance in value, we discover that purchases fall by about 1%.
GODOY: So when folks needed to pay extra for sugary drinks, they decreased their consumption.
KELLY: Maria, my thoughts, in fact, is taking pictures straight to ways in which folks may recreation this. Could not folks have simply – I do not know – pushed to the subsequent metropolis over, pushed to the suburbs, discovered soda that was nonetheless cheaper?
GODOY: Yeah. You realize, that is a great level. And earlier analysis in Philadelphia discovered that whereas gross sales of sugary drinks went down in that metropolis, they really went up in surrounding areas, indicating that folks, yeah, had been driving to keep away from the taxes. However this new examine did not discover that. Throughout the 5 U.S. cities they checked out, these cross-border gross sales did not enhance.
KELLY: So it labored is what you are telling me. I imply, that is the acknowledged purpose of those taxes – is curbing consumption.
GODOY: Effectively, you recognize, from a public well being standpoint, sugary drinks actually don’t have any dietary worth. And as Kaplan famous, you are likely to guzzle them with out registering the energy, so they do not fill you up.
KAPLAN: Sugary drinks make up, like, 1 / 4 of all of the added sugar we see within the common grownup American food regimen, and that is a extremely large quantity.
GODOY: And, in fact, an excessive amount of sugar is linked to a number of unhealthy well being outcomes like diabetes, weight problems, coronary heart illness. So these taxes are designed to discourage folks from consuming a lot sugar. In reality, again in 2019, each the American Coronary heart Affiliation and the American Academy of Pediatrics formally endorsed soda taxes as a great way to cut back the chance of childhood weight problems. And simply final month the World Well being Group referred to as on nations to extend taxes on sugary drinks.
KELLY: Though, as we famous proper firstly, these are actually controversial. There’s all types of pushback to those taxes.
GODOY: Effectively, proper. The U.S. noticed a flurry of localities go these sugary drinks beginning a couple of decade in the past. After which there was pushback. And the soda trade poured thousands and thousands of {dollars} into combating them. In some states, opponents handed legal guidelines that mainly stripped localities of the ability to have the ability to go soda taxes, in order that they type of stalled. In a press release to NPR, the American Beverage Affiliation mentioned that the trade’s technique of providing extra selections with much less sugar is working and that just about 60% of drinks offered in the present day have zero sugar. They are saying these drink taxes are unproductive and damage shoppers.
KELLY: Thanks, Maria.
GODOY: My pleasure.
KELLY: NPR’s Maria Godoy.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its last kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might differ. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
