Cornelsen Laura, Green Rosemary, Dangour Alan, Smith Richard
Department of Global Health and Development, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London WC1E 7HT, UK Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), London WC1H 0PD, UK.
Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), London WC1H 0PD, UK Department of Population Health, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, LSHTM, London WC1E 7HT, UK.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2015 Mar;37(1):18-23. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdu032. Epub 2014 May 22.
Increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has led policy-makers to consider health-related taxes to limit the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. Such taxes are currently already in place in countries in Europe (e.g. Hungary, France and Finland) and in various states in the USA. Although these taxes are possibly efficient in reducing by a small amount the consumption of targeted products if the tax is fully transmitted to the consumer, there is too little available evidence on what will be consumed instead and whether these food substitutions undermine the hoped-for health benefits of the tax. We also know very little on how the food supply side will respond and what overall impact this will have. Without a proper appreciation of the potential indirect impacts we do not know the overall impact of taxes foods on unhealthy foods and beverages and further that there is a very real possibility that they may not be beneficial for health after all.
超重和肥胖患病率的不断上升促使政策制定者考虑征收与健康相关的税，以限制不健康食品和饮料的消费。目前，欧洲国家（如匈牙利、法国和芬兰）以及美国的各个州已经实施了此类税收。尽管如果税收完全转嫁给消费者，这些税收可能会在一定程度上有效减少目标产品的消费，但关于人们会转而消费什么以及这些食物替代是否会削弱税收所期望带来的健康益处，现有证据非常少。我们对食品供应方将如何应对以及这将产生何种总体影响也知之甚少。如果不能正确认识潜在的间接影响，我们就不知道对不健康食品和饮料征税的总体影响，而且很有可能这些税收最终对健康并无益处。
