SB 1000 Sugary Drinks Warning Label Bill Approved by Senate May 29, 2014 Advocacy, CMA, Public Health, SFMS Member SB 1000, soda warning label 0 UPDATED 5/29/2014 4:00pm: SB 1000 passes in the Senate with 21 votes today. Thank you to Senator Mark Leno and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano for co-authoring and drumming up for this bill. A SFMS/CMA-sponsored bill that would place health warning labels on soft drinks and other sugary drinks passed out of the state Senate Appropriations Committee and is on the Senate Daily File (agenda for the Senate) for a vote, perhaps as early as today. SB 1000 (Monning), co-authored by two San Francisco legislators Senator Mark Leno and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, would establish the Sugary Drink Safety Warning Act to place the following message on sweetened drinks containing 75 calories or more per 12-ounce serving: "CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay." The bill was based off of an idea from first-year UCSF medical student Tom Gaither. Gaither says the idea came to him after teaching high school for two years in San Jose. “Kids would come to class with a soda or sports drink,” he said. “So many of the kids didn’t know how bad surgery beverages were for them.” He found himself so worked up about the subject that he taught a semester on sugar in foods for one of his classes. Sugary drinks are the biggest contributor of added calories in the American diet, responsible for 43% of the 300 additional calories added to the average American’s daily consumption over the last 30 years. Drinking just one soda a day can increase an adult’s likelihood of being overweight by 27% and a child’s by 55%. Research shows that a soda or two a day increases the risk of diabetes by 26%. SB 1000 is designed to help address the diabetes epidemic in California, which is especially high among the state’s Latino population and among children. Click here for more information on SB 1000. Comments are closed.
