• January 4, 2011

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other health advocate groups have sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg calling on the agency to use its authority to require that health warnings be carried on sugar-sweetened sodas and other sugary drinks.

The groups maintain that warnings are warranted by "overwhelming evidence" linking soft drinks to obesity, diabetes and other health threats. They are proposing a series of rotating warning messages such as "The U.S. Government recommends that you drink fewer sugary drinks to prevent weight gain, tooth decay, heart disease and diabetes" and "This drink contains XXX calories. Consider switching to water."  

Signers of the letter include several public health departments (New York State, Boston, Philadelphia and El Paso, Tex.), as well as the American Public Health Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, Shape Up America! and The Trust for America's Health.

CSPI, which formally petitioned the FDA for such warning labels in 2005, during the Bush administration, says it hopes that the Obama administration will be more receptive to the concept, given its emphasis on reducing childhood obesity.