American Obesity: Too Fat For Small Cars

Anthony Fontanelle
September 20, 2007

The obesity epidemic has inflicted more and more Americans. As such, the western realm has to endure a new problem – Americans are getting too fat for their cars.

American government guidelines on the maximum weight that a car can carry can easily be exceeded before any luggage is even added, USA Today reported. The guidelines were released in the previous year as part of the result of the Firestone tire recall in 2000.

The recall was made in response to the failure of tires which resulted in many roll-over accidents. Some of the accidents have overloading as the proximate cause. To respond to this, automakers added a maximum weight limit for their product lines. In the United States, these limits have generally been calculated using an average passenger weight of 150 pounds.

That means that two-seat sports car such as the Corvette C6 and Mazda MX-5 (maximum capacity 340 pounds) are not certified to carry two 200-pound adults, the report added. That Mazda muffler is fuming.

But it seems that it is not just the sports car that causes such a problem. To note, most five-seaters, such as the Honda Accord, are rated at 850 pounds, so five adults weighing 170 pounds each would fill the car to their limit before taking any luggage.

At present, automakers are working on shaving a few pounds from their cars and boosting fuel efficiency to respond to global warming concerns.

How disturbing is obesity in America? Americans are ballooning to extremely obese proportions at an alarming rate. The number of extremely obese American adults, those who are at least 100 pounds overweight, has quadrupled since the 1980s to about four million, reported Fox News. That works out to roughly one in every 50 adults.

Extreme obesity once was thought to be a rare, distinct condition whose prevalence remained relatively steady over time. The new study defies that notion and suggests that it is at least partly due to the same kinds of behavior. Behaviors such as overeating and under-activity have contributed to the epidemic number of Americans with less severe weight problems.

Based on the findings by a RAND Corp. researcher show, the number of extremely obese adults has surged twice as fast as the number of less severely obese adults. On the scale of obesity, "as the whole population shifts to the right, the extreme categories grow the fastest," said RAND economist Roland Sturm. “These people have the highest health care costs."

Sturm analyzed annual telephone surveys conducted nationwide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His report covers surveys from 1986 through 2000. In 1986, one in 200 adults reported height and weight measurements reflecting extreme obesity, or a body-mass index of at least 40. By 2000, the figures jumped to one in 50.

Additionally, the prevalence of the most extreme obesity, people with a BMI of at least 50, increased fivefold from one in 2,000 to one in 400, Sturm said. On the contrary, ordinary obesity, a BMI of 30 to 35, doubled. From about one in ten, the figure grew to one in five. Body-mass index is a ratio of height to weight.

Dr. Mary Vernon, a trustee of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, said that the study reflects what doctors who specialize in treating obesity are seeing in their offices. Vernon noted the number of her patients weighing 300 to 350 pounds or so has doubled in the past several years.

Vernon said that the biggest challenge in treating severely obese people, who typically have tried mightily to lose weight, "is giving them enough hope that it's worth trying again."

Source:  Amazines.com