Photo by MosayMay, courtesy iStockphoto
Lowering risks for excessive weight gain and related chronic diseases can be as simple as levying a tax, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
Placing excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages has been shown to generate revenue, reduce health care costs and improve population health, a February PAHO report found.
“Sugary beverages greatly contribute to overweight and obesity, and these conditions are known to cause heart disease, diabetes and other serious noncommunicable diseases,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne, MBBS, MSc, said in a news release. “Reducing consumption of these beverages improves health, and excise taxation is an effective tool to achieve this.”
Seventy-three countries have imposed a national sugary-drink tax, 21 of which are PAHO members. Seven U.S. jurisdictions had imposed such taxes as of December 2019, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boulder, Colorado.
Numerous studies have shown that taxing sugary drinks — such as sodas, juices and energy drinks — reduces consumption. In Mexico, which has some of the world’s highest rates of diabetes and obesity, a 10% tax levied in 2014 reduced consumption by 9.7% by the second year alone.
A tax that increases the price of sugary drinks by 25% can reduce consumer demand by 34%, the PAHO report said.
Funds from excise taxes can be used to improve public health, according to Anselm Hennis, PhD, MSc, director of PAHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health.
“Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes could be used as an immediate source of tax revenue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, finance economic recovery plans and support countries as they advance to universal health coverage,” Hennis said in the news release.
In the past 20 years, overweight and obesity have increased substantially in the Americas, with the highest adult prevalence rates in the United States, Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas. Obesity is also on the rise among children and adolescents.
“As more governments adopt and improve taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, this is expected to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases,” Hennis said.
The report provides tools for policymakers to institute taxes in their jurisdictions, including an overview of potential tax revenue, costs associated with obesity, information on tax design and responses to frequent questions on economic impacts.
“The SSB industry often claims that the taxes will not work — that is, they will not increase prices or have the intended impacts of changes in consumption,” the report said. “However…there is clear evidence that recent SSB taxes have increased prices faced by consumers and have reduced the demand for taxed products.”
For more information on the report, “Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxation in the Region of the Americas,” visit www.paho.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
