While the debate over the efficacy of a sugary tax continues, the results of a study by Penn Medicine researchers indicates that such a measure can make a difference to the way in which people consume sugary and artificially-sweetened beverages.
While the 1.5% tax wasn't introduced primarily as a health measure, intended as a means of raising funding schools, parks and recreation centres, it was recognised that it might have a secondary effect of discouraging people from drinking beverages that have been linked to rises in tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.
This has certainly happened with a 38% drop in the purchase on sugary drinks across the city's fast food retailers, a figure that equates to about 83 million cans of soda or one billion fewer ounces of product consumed.
The results in Philadelphia, the second city in the US to implement a sugar tax after Berkeley in California which witnessed a decrease in consumption in excess of 10%, follow programs in countries like Mexico and the UK where these measures have had a major effect on peoples' behaviour.
Beverage taxes have now been passed in seven US cities and are under consideration in Colorado and Connecticut.
For more on this story, go to "Sales of sugary drinks drop by 38% after beverage tax in Philadelphia"
