CONTACT:
Dr. Harold Goldstein             -or-            Paula Hamilton
CA Center for Public Health Advocacy                  Brown Miller Communications
(530) 297-6000                                         (800) 710-9333

 

The City of El Monte becomes the second city in California
to put a soda tax on the November ballot

July 25, 2012, El Monte, Calif…The City of El Monte’s City Council unanimously voted to put a soda tax measure on the November ballot at their meeting last night.
With this vote, El Monte becomes the second city in California, after Richmond, to propose taxing soda and other sugary drinks as a way to counter their unprecedented childhood obesity crisis. El Monte has the ninth highest rate of childhood overweight and obesity out of 250 cities in California, according to a recent study released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA).

Overweight and obesity affect more than half (50.2 percent) of the children in the city of El Monte.

Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of CCPHA says that the rate is shocking and significantly higher than the overall state rate of childhood obesity of 38 percent. As a consequence California is seeing a dramatic rise in chronic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which cost the state an estimated $41 billion a year.

"If we are serious about curbing childhood obesity, we have to start with the biggest culprit. Soda and other sugary drinks are the leading contributor to the obesity epidemic. A tax on soda is a smart strategy to raise needed funds for cash-strapped cities such as El Monte and, at the same time, protect children’s health," says Goldstein. 
As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the health of Californians, CCPHA has played a major role in uncovering the role soda and other sugary drinks play in the obesity epidemic.

Visit the CCPHA website at: publichealthadvocacy.org.