Soft drink tax cuts thirst in U.S. city

A penny-per-ounce levy on sugar-sweetened drinks was introduced in the city back in March 2015, and research suggests it played a big role in Berkeley bucking the trend of increased consumption seen in the comparative Californian cities of Okland and San Francisco in that period.

“Low-income communities bear the brunt of the health consequences of obesity and diabetes, so this decline in soda and sugary beverage consumption is very encouraging”, said study senior author Kristine Madsen, an associate professor of public health at UC Berkeley. But it’s the residents of Berkeley, Calif., the small university town near San Francisco and Oakland, that may have just given the soda industry its eviction notice.

Other cities in California like San Francisco and Oakland are expected to vote on a sugary drink tax in the November elections, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The full paper, titled “Impact of the Berkeley Excise Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption” has been published online in the American Journal of Public Health. As well, cities poorer than Berkeley – a relatively wealthy area, which had lower soda consumption relative to the rest of America to begin with – will see even greater gains. Berkeley is adjacent to Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco.

“My expectation then is that Philly, where people are going to be switching beverages, will probably also shift to more water and that, from a public health perspective, is also the best outcome”, she said. The industry spent more than $9 million on its successful 2014 effort to defeat San Francisco’s soda tax. In cities where no tax had been implemented, soda consumption actually increased by 4% in the same period.

Earlier this year Philadelphia passed legislation that would make it the largest US city to enact a soda tax, and dozens more are considering similar measures.

Researchers collected their data by interviewing Berkeley residents about their drinking habits both before and after the tax was implemented, polling more than 2,500 people across varying demographics. Now, a study released this week conducted by the University of California Berkeley, shows the tax has had a noticeable impact.

It’s increasingly clear that soda is one of the most worrisome food products on the shelf – it’s a major source of added sugar in the American diet and it’s consumed at perilous volumes that are contributing to obesity and diabetes.

“This would have a huge public health impact if it were sustained”, she tells NPR. This means higher prices for the consumer, and three months after Measure D went into effect 47% of the penny-per-ounce tax was taken out of customers’ pockets. “I would say, ‘How often do you drink regular soda, like a Coke, or Sprite?” People may be more inclined to react to such a tax when it is new. Street surveys relying on people’s recollections are “inherently unreliable”, said Brad Williams, an economist who does consulting work for the association.