Senate proposes doubling soft drink taxes “To protect children ..."

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Senate is proposing to double taxes on all soft drinks or nonalcoholic carbonated beverages from .15 cents to .30 cents.

Senator Magalei Logovii during the Senate session yesterday pointed out the bill in question is nothing new the only difference is they are increasing the taxes on soft drinks where .20 cents will go into the general fund and .10 cents will go to the hospital.

 “Reports received is that $3.89 million was collected taxes on sodas from October last year to September this year, in 2020 $3.4 million was the collection,” said Magalei.

According to the bill that was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday the American Academy of Pediatrics reports, “excess consumption of added sugars, especially from sugary drinks contributes to the high prevalence of childhood and adolescence obesity, especially among children and adolescents who are socioeconomically vulnerable.

 “It also increases the risk for dental decay, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, fatty liver disease, and all-cause mortality.

 “The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that added sugars contribute less than 10% of total calories consumed, yet US children and adolescents report consuming 17% of their calories from added sugars, nearly half of which are from sugary drinks.”

The preamble says that decreasing sugary drink consumption is of particular importance because sugary drinks are the leading source of added sugars in the US diet, provide little to no nutritional value, are high in energy density, and do little to increase feelings of satiety.

 “To protect child and adolescents; health, broad implementation of policy strategies to reduce sugary drink consumption in children and adolescents is urgently needed.

 “Public Policies to Reduce Sugary Drink Consumption in Children and Adolescents, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Samoa children are not any different from children in the United States.

 “Every morning, at every store in the territory, you see an influx of children, adolescents, and adults, purchasing soda, cookies, chips, etc. for breakfast; and our residents continue to purchase cheaper sodas, cookies, and chips, the higher the number of residents being diagnosed with diabetes.

 “The number of residents needing dialysis continues to rise, our LBJ Dialysis Unit runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; and we must do a better job at encouraging healthy food choices for our youth.

 “One option is to raise the cost of soda. If we make it more expensive for our children to buy soda, we will hopefully encourage other choices for drinks, healthier choices, such as water.”

In July, Senate President Tuaolo Manaia Fruean expressed concerns over the number of dialysis patients that continues to increase.

Tuaolo then urged Senators to look into increasing the taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages in the territory. Adding a lot of children are obese as a result of these sugar-sweetened drinks.

 “Hike the taxes, we shouldn’t be sitting around,” he said during one of the sessions this week.

 “We shouldn’t let the Government off the hook,” Tuaolo added. Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes are increasingly used by countries around the world to incentivize healthy beverage choices.

Currently the taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages is 72 percent.

A study by Australia and New Zealand Public Health Journal says the Pacific region is recorded as some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world; and it has undergone rapid changes in nutrition with the increasing importation of processed food and dependency on trade. 

Furthermore in the Pacific, the Ministers of Health and Finance have declared a non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis, stating that the financial costs of NCDs are unsustainable.

In the American Samoa Adult Hybrid Survey published in 2018, Director of Health, Motusa Tuilaeama Nua says American Samoa, just as many of its neighbors in the Pacific region, has been plagued with non communicable diseases that are currently among the leading causes of death and disability among the people.

According to the data from the survey under chronic conditions for American Samoans compared to America for obesity records says it’s 93. percent compared to 71.6 percent in America; diabetes is 33 percent whereas it’s 12.2 percent for America.