Editorial: The girth of a nation

Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

The House last week approved the so-called "cheeseburger bill" that would ban lawsuits from being filed against fast-food restaurants by those who say the industry made them fat. A similar measure died in the Senate last March but now is expected to resurface there next year.

The legislation is a small portion of a bigger picture in which weight-related issues are growing as quickly as our waistlines. About 65 percent of Americans are overweight, which includes an estimated 4 million who are considered obese or at least 100 pounds overweight.

Society's costs typically are framed in terms of health care. People who are overweight often suffer from such illnesses as heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

And now, it seems, health care isn't the only industry battling the bulge. Public transportation, hospitals and even undertakers must change standards to make room for bigger people.

Having to build a bigger cemetery vault, while more expensive, isn't exactly a crisis. But consequences in other situations can be tragic. Too much weight makes boats and airplanes top-heavy, experts say.

Five people died when the Lady D, a 36-foot water taxi, capsized in Baltimore Harbor on March 6, 2004. National Transportation Safety Board officials say the boat was carrying its limit of 25 people but was 700 pounds overweight.

That's because the U.S. Coast Guard, which sets the capacity standards, still uses 1960s calculations that set the average passenger's weight at 140 pounds. The average weight of an adult is now 165 to 170 pounds. The Coast Guard is studying its 40-year-old standards to come up with new guidelines.

And chronic diseases associated with obesity aren't the only added health cost. Clinics and hospitals also are adding space and equipment to address an increase in specialized treatments for overweight people and to accommodate heavier patients, a Scripps Howard News Service report says. Hospitals now buy, rather than rent, 1,000-pound-capacity beds, which are 50 inches wide for larger patients.

Caskets and interment vaults are wider. Movie theater seats are wider. Airlines are replacing older heavy seats with those made of lightweight materials, and some airlines charge large passengers double fare for using two seats. The price of pudge is going to hit us in a lot of ways if we don't put down the cookie and walk away from the French fries. Or, better yet, run.