In soda tax fight, experts hear echoes of tobacco battles
Amid rising rates of diabetes and obesity in the nation, Berkeley, Calif., became the first American city to institute a sugary-drink tax, generally referred to as a soda tax, in 2015. Since then a handful of jurisdictions, such as Philadelphia, Seattle, and Boulder, Colo., have passed similar measures. Other proposals have failed at the ballot box or been rescinded. New York proposed a rule capping portion sizes in 2012, which was successfully challenged in state court. The regulation push-pull continues as soda-tax citizen advocates and public-health professionals brace for the long haul and draw lessons from the tobacco wars about how tough a fight lies ahead against a deep-pocketed industry adept at political and public relations warfare. “I think it’s a question of time” before soda taxes become more common, said Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s a battle, though.” In...