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State senate to explore limiting sugar

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The California Senate Committee on Health will hold a hearing Wednesday, April 22 to discuss legislation, SB 203, introduced Feb. 11 by Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning, that would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act.

The bill would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, or a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, in the state unless the sugary beverages bears a safety warning. The label, developed by a national panel of public health experts, would read—State of California Safety Warning: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.

SB 203 would also require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. If enacted, the bill will begin July 1, 2016. Any violations not complying with warning label provisions or regulations adopted will be punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. Fines collected from the violations would go into a Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund. The bill would allocate money in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of enforcing those provisions.

For more information, contact Community Health Councils’policy director, Gwendolyn Flynn at GFlynn@chc-inc.org.

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