Soft drinks out for LA fatties
2002-08-27 20:52
Los Angeles -
In a move expected to set a precedent around the country, the
school board of Los Angeles was set Tuesday to ban the sale of soft
drinks like Coke and Pepsi from schools throughout the city.
With 748 000 students in 677 schools, the Los Angeles School
district trails only New York as the largest school district in the
country.
Each school typically earns $50 000 during a three-year
period for an exclusive retail contract with a soft-drinks
manufacturers, excluding the $5 000 a month they take in from
sales.
These earnings are a crucial resource for cash-strapped schools
in the city, but many experts now believe the cost is too high.
A US department of agriculture study from the mid-1990s showed
that 12 to 17-year-olds get 11% of their calories from soft
drinks. The centres for disease control and prevention reports 13% of children are now classified as seriously obese.
Children's Hospital in Boston published a study last year which showed
that children who consume one extra sugar-sweetened drink daily
increase their chances of becoming obese by 60%.
A majority of Los Angeles school board members say they support
the ban, which will prevent all schools from selling carbonated
drinks during school hours starting in January 2004. Other
beverages, like water, milk, or drinks with at least 50%
fruit juice and sports drinks containing less than 42g of
sugar per serving would still be permitted.
So far, only the school district of Oakland has passed a similar
ban, but experts predict a greater influence from the Los Angeles
action.
"It's going to set a national trend," Francesca de la Rosa of
the centre for food and justice at Occidental College's Urban and
Environmental Policy Institute told the Los Angeles Times. "People
will say, if you can do it at LAUSD, you can do it anywhere."
- Sapa-DPA
- SAPA