RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the former United States Surgeon General David Satcher reported that 300,000 people die each year due to obesity-related causes, making it the second-leading cause of death, after smoking; and

WHEREAS, in 1997, Americans spent more than $54,000,000,000 on soft drinks instead of drinking low-fat milk, orange juice, or other beverages that could help cut the risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, and cancer; and

WHEREAS, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced legislation in 2001 that would allow the United States Department of Agriculture to restrict the sale of snacks and soft drinks in schools; and

WHEREAS, a study conducted by the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts concluded that for every additional serving per day of soft drink consumed, the risk of becoming obese increases by approximately fifty per cent; and

WHEREAS, the same study also concluded that fifty-seven per cent of the children in the study had increased their daily intake of soft drinks, many by nearly a full serving, adding fifteen to twenty teaspoons a day of added sugar from soft drinks alone; and

WHEREAS, a University of Hawaii study concluded youth obesity levels in Hawaii are double that of mainland levels; and

WHEREAS, a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School concluded that active girls who drink carbonated beverages, especially cola, are five times more likely to have bone fractures than those who do not drink such beverages; and

WHEREAS, the Harvard study noted that although both teenage boys and girls have doubled or tripled their consumption of carbonated beverages in recent years and reduced their milk consumption by forty per cent, boys maintain a higher calcium intake and higher activity level that provides protection from bone fractures;

WHEREAS, researchers believe that the phosphoric acid content of carbonated beverages alters the way calcium is metabolized, preventing the absorption of calcium and causing calcium to be leached from bones; and

WHEREAS, adolescence is the most critical period for development of bone mass and teenage girls, in particular, who drink carbonated beverages and reduce their calcium intake face a substantial increase in developing osteoporosis in later life; and

WHEREAS, in September 2002, the sale of soft drinks, candy and other products of low nutritional value near school cafeterias became illegal in Texas; and

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that American teens drink twice as much carbonated soda as milk; and

WHEREAS, more than thirty school districts in California, Tennessee and Wisconsin have refused to sign contracts with soft drink vendors; and

WHEREAS, vending machine sales nationwide account for $750,000,000 annually in extra money for schools, placing profit over concern for health; and

WHEREAS, the 2002 Hawaii Secondary Student Conference recently proposed that all operating soda machines in public high schools in Hawaii should increase the healthy beverage options available to students by providing healthy and non-carbonated products available to students in school soda machines; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Education, is requested to require that all operating soda machines in public high schools designate all of the available soda spaces in each machine for the sale of healthy and non-carbonated beverages and to prohibit the dispensing of carbonated beverages; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education, who in turn is requested to transmit copies to the Hawaii State Student Council and the principal and school-community based management council for each secondary school.

Report Title:

Healthy beverage options in public high school soda machines