No one is excited about taxes and fees, but the good news is that they can do a lot of good. For example in London, where kids breathe in high levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, new traffic taxes (AKA congestion pricing) are making a difference, reducing pollution by as much as a third. New York City is poised to join the ranks of cities participating by 2021, when a new fee will hopefully curb pollution as well as raising over a billion dollars for transportation infrastructure.
Another positive tax is a tax on soda. In Mexico, an approximately 10% tax on soda decreased soda consumption by about 6%, an impact that is estimated to potentially prevent almost 200,000 cases of diabetes. Wow.
Three of these four were from the Global Health Now newsletter; you can subscribe at https://www.globalhealthnow.org/subscribe
