SUGAR TAX HAS BEEN BLINDLY IGNORED AND SO HAS OUR OBESITY CRISIS
THE Government’s decision not to introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks is a setback to the overall commitment to ‘Healthy Ireland’ this Government claims to have made. It follows repeated requests from the Department of Health strongly backed by Health Minister Leo Varadkar and his predecessor James Reilly to introduce a significant levy. Such a tax will not work in isolation – but as part of a range of measures it is likely to be a major contributor to turning the tide.
Fiscal measures have been shown to impact on behaviour and last week’s Healthy Ireland survey, funded by the Government, provided compelling support for the introduction of such a tax. The youngest in the country are the biggest consumers of sugar- sweetened drinks and those who consume these beverages the most are more likely to be obese.
In addition, highest consumption comes in the lowest socio-economic groups so the maximum health benefit would accrue in this area.
Yet again, industry lobbying and vested interests have won the day.
This is despite serious evidencebased calls from the Royal College of Physicians’ Expert group on Obesity, the Irish Heart Foundation and, as late as last week, a last-ditch submission from Professor Ivan Perry on behalf of the Health Research Boardfunded Centre for Health and Diet Research. In other words, the medical and scientific community is at one on the potential of a sugar-sweetened drink tax to contribute to the kind of behaviour change that is needed to deal with the obesity epidemic.
Last year a large survey showed that the majority of the public were now in favour of a sugar-sweetened drink tax – a startling statistic given the general view on new taxes of any kind. The public view has been i nformed by i ndustry behaviour where we can see Coca-Cola buying bottled water companies and GlaxoSmithKline selling its interest in Lucozade Sport and Ribena days after the clear link between sugarsweetened drinks and the development of type 2 diabetes was published in April 2013. Industry bosses know the days of free consumption of the highly addictive liquid sugar are numbered and they are positioning themselves for the future. In the meantime they must grow their next market and maintain their profit
Consultant Endocrinologist margins for the moment. Hence their highly effective lobbying at senior government level in Ireland and, indeed, the EU.
In Mexico the imposition of a more modest levy on sugar- sweetened drinks than is being sought in Ireland has already led to a fall in consumption of over 5 per cent. Clear health benefits will accrue and if the 20 per cent tax asked for by our previous ministers was introduced, the drop in consumption would likely be far greater. There clearly would need to be evaluation of impact and any unintended consequences – but we now have an annual Healthy Ireland survey to help with that aspect.
It is 2015 and we now realise in the developed world that what we eat and drink are major drivers of disease. We have known for decades that legislation impacts on behaviour – seat belts in cars; drink-driving legislation; and a plastic bag tax are good examples. The need to use legislation to combat our biggest threat to health is clear and has never been more important – the trolley situation highlights this on a daily basis.
WHEN Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organisation, tells us the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks is now more of a threat to our children than vaccine-preventable disease, we must take note. The major challenge facing public health i s that the threats come from outside of the traditional action areas of public health i.e. unregulated marketing of sugary drinks to our youngest citizens.
That is why a Government commitment to addressing this – by introducing a tax on sugar- sweetened drinks was so important. Failure to do this in yesterday’s Budget is a huge disappointment to those involved in public health and the treatment of the effects of obesity.
This inaction will allow the harming of our children by the obesogenic environment to continue.
I hope that the Office of the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance will be ‘stronger’ in their stance against the vested interests after they have a general election behind them. This is not the end of the road for a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks.