A second comment. Yes the extra weight takes more jet
fuel, but what about all the extra petroleum products
used to grow and transport the extra food that is
eaten. I don't know how to calculate it but I am sure
that if everyone ate a sensible diet much more fuel
would be saved.
Ken
--- Peggy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:. 

> Another comment about the larger people: The amazing
> weight gains make
> flying the inexpensive flights interesting in
> another way.  You can
> really rub shin again and again when seated next to
> an obese person.
> Rubbing skin with a stranger is really strange.  It
> bugs me to tuck in
> my arms and still be skin to skin with the next
> person when I don't even
> know the name.
> 
> Peggy
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Greg Harbican
> Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 8:30 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [Biofuel] Fly the fatty skies ( obesity
> increases pollution )
> 
> Obesity hurts more than the people with the extra
> weight.
> 
> Greg H.
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------- 
> 
> Feds: Obesity Raising Airline Fuel Costs  
>  
> November 4, 2004 08:57 PM EST  
>  
> 
> ATLANTA - Heavy suitcases aren't the only things
> weighing down airplanes
> and requiring them to burn more fuel, pushing up the
> cost of flights. A
> new government study reveals that airlines
> increasingly have to worry
> more about the weight of their passengers. 
> 
> America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom
> lines of airline
> companies as the extra pounds on passengers are
> causing a drag on
> planes. Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel
> costs, according to the
> government study. 
> 
> Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans
> increased by 10
> pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control
> and Prevention. The
> extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million
> to burn 350 million
> more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the
> additional weight of
> Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent
> issue of the
> American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 
> 
> "The obesity epidemic has unexpected consequences
> beyond direct health
> effects," said Dr. Deron Burton of the CDC. "Our
> goal was to highlight
> one area that had not been looked at before." 
> 
> The extra fuel burned also had an environmental
> impact, as an estimated
> 3.8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide were
> released into the air,
> according to the study. 
> 
> The agency said its calculations are rough
> estimates, issued to
> highlight previously undocumented consequences of
> the ongoing obesity
> epidemic. 
> 
> The estimates were calculated by determining how
> much fuel the 10 extra
> pounds of weight per passenger represented in
> Department of
> Transportation airline statistics, Burton said. 
> 
> Obesity is a life-or-death struggle in the United
> States, the underlying
> cause of 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump
> from 1990. If current
> trends persist, it will become the nation's No. 1
> cause of preventable
> death, the CDC said earlier this year. 
> 
> More than half - 56 percent - of U.S. adults were
> overweight or obese in
> the early 1990s, according to a CDC survey. That
> rose to 65 percent in a
> similar survey done from 1999 to 2002. 
> 
> Although the Air Transport Association of America
> has not yet validated
> the CDC data, spokesman Jack Evans said the health
> agency's appraisal
> "does not sound out of the realm of reality." 
> 
> With most airlines reporting losses blamed partly on
> record-high fuel
> costs, everything on an airplane is now a weighty
> issue. Airlines are
> doing everything they can to lighten the load on all
> aircraft, from
> wide-body jets to turboprops. 
> 
> Bulky magazines have gone out the door. Metal forks
> and spoons have been
> replaced with plastic. Large carry-ons are being
> scrutinized and even
> heavy materials that used to make up airplane seats
> are being replaced
> with plastic and other lightweight materials. 
> 
> "We're dealing in a world of small numbers - even
> though it has a very
> incremental impact" to reduce a 60- to 120-ton
> aircraft's weight by
> bumping off a few magazines, Evans said. "When you
> consider airlines are
> flying millions of miles, it adds up over time." 
> 
> Although passenger bulk has been an issue in the
> past - Dallas-based
> Southwest Airlines requires large people to buy a
> second seat for
> passenger safety and comfort - Evans says it's not
> likely airlines will
> scrutinize how much passengers weigh in the future.
> Instead, they are
> trying to do a better job of estimating passenger
> weight in figuring out
> how much fuel they need for a flight. 
> 
> Seattle-based Alaska Airlines now calculates the
> weight of children on
> flights, instead of using adult-weight formulas for
> all passengers,
> Evans said. 
> 
> "Just like we don't control the costs of our fuel,
> we don't control the
> weights of our passengers," he said. "Passengers
> gain weight, but
> airlines are the ones that go on a diet. It's part
> of the conundrum we
> face right now." 
> 
> --- 
> 
> On The Net: 
> 
> CDC info: http://www.cdc.gov 
> 
> 
> November 4, 2004 08:57 PM EST  
>  
> 
> ATLANTA - Heavy suitcases aren't the only things
> weighing down airplanes
> and requiring them to burn more fuel, pushing up the
> cost of flights. A
> new government study reveals that airlines
> increasingly have to worry
> more about the weight of their passengers. 
> 
> America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom
> lines of airline
> companies as the extra pounds on passengers are
> causing a drag on
> planes. Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel
> costs, according to the
> government study. 
> 
> Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans
> increased by 10
> pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control
> and Prevention. The
> extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million
> to burn 350 million
> more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the
> additional weight of
> Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent
> issue of the
> American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 
> 
> "The obesity epidemic has unexpected consequences
> beyond direct health
> effects," said Dr. Deron Burton of the CDC. "Our
> goal was to highlight
> one area that had not been looked at before." 
> 
=== message truncated ===


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