In 2016, the City Council implemented the Philadelphia Beverage Tax (PBT) to fund a free pre-K program (PHLpreK) and several other educational and neighborhood revitalization initiatives. Seven years later, researchers have discovered that the tax is also having positive effects on maternal and infant health. A study conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, examined data from 2013 to 2019 in five cities with sugary beverage taxes and found that pregnant women were 41% less likely to develop gestational diabetes. Researchers also found that pregnant women in these cities were 7.9% less likely to experience unhealthy weight gain and 39% less likely to give birth to small babies of gestational age. The benefits of the sugary drinks tax were most pronounced in Philadelphia, likely due to the city taxing the drinks at a higher rate than the others included in the study. Read the full story here.
