San Francisco pushes for health warning on soda bottles

Lawmakers in San Francisco are trying to apply the same health warning policy used with alcohol and tobacco products on sugary drinks.

If the elected officials have their way, San Franciscans will soon see labels on soda bottles warning consumers about the drink's potential damage to health if it contains at least 25 calories per every 35 centiliters.

The move was proposed by three members of the U.S. west coast city's 11-member Board of Supervisors. As co-authors of the bill, supervisors Malia Cohen, Scott Wiener and Eric Mar are also pushing to ban advertisements of sugary drinks on city-owned properties.

"We want to avoid these industries from targeting their main consumers who belong, mostly, to society's low-income sectors, like Hispanics, African Americans as well as the Asian community, who have the highest risks of developing Type II diabetes of all the country's minorities," Cohen told Xinhua on Thursday.

The draft bill was presented this week during a board meeting. If enacted, it would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to introduce such a policy.

This is not the city's first battle against sugary drinks. Lawmakers last year failed to introduce a tax on sodas that would have increased the cost of these beverages, when voters snubbed their proposal on the ballot.

"We can't afford to allow these companies to sell drinks loaded with sugar, it's hurting our community and it's hurting our society," Cohen said. "We truly hope this legislation passes later on this year, since consumers need to know that these beverages can cause obesity, tooth decay and diabetes. Many of them are not aware of the danger and drink outstanding amounts of these soda drinks per week," she said.

CalBev, which represents members of the non-alcoholic beverage industry in California, rebuked the supervisors' proposal earlier this week, arguing that they are targeting sugary drinks instead of other consumer goods loaded with sugar, like pastries or certain caffeine drinks.

A proposal to tax sugary drinks did succeed, however, in Berkeley last year, making the city north of San Francisco the first in the country to apply a taxing measure on sugary sodas and beverages.

Lawmakers in San Francisco and the Bay Area believe now that after voters in Berkeley approved the move, momentum is building up to bring out the big guns against soda companies.

"We think it's the right time for this proposal," Cohen said, "people are more aware of the health problem these drinks pose and we know that those companies are going to try to fight back to bury the bill, like they did last year." Endi