The health consequences of obesity such as diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension and some forms of cancer are well known but the engineering design headaches are often overlooked. In the developed nations, there are always provisions to re-engineer or refurbish existing infrastructure to accommodate the increasing weight of the population. Developing countries are not so lucky to have such luxury. In this short article, I will be highlighting a few areas where excess flesh is making re-engineering a necessity and why developing countries should be concerned.
Ambulance Services: Last week it was reported that ambulance services in the United Kingdom are refurbishing their convoy in order to conveniently handle heavier patients.
Airlines: In the US, some airlines, including Southwest, are instituting severe policies towards bulkier passengers. These include charging such passengers for the ‘excess’ weight. The additional fee is meant to enable the airline offer comfortable seating to all passengers and prepare for the additional efforts that may be needed to manage heavier passengers in the case of an emergency evacuation.
The Movie Theater, the Church, and Your Tithe: Surveys shows that today’s movie auditoriums hold half the number of people similar-sized auditoriums held around 1900, about 100 years ago. And what is the reason? Visitors to the auditoriums these days possess bigger bums and so bigger seats are needed to accommodate the extra flesh.
What applies to the movie theater will also hold true for the church auditorium. Much as most Men of God would not be comfortable going over the God-apportioned 10% tithe, the reality is that sooner than later, you will need to give more than 10% help design bigger seats for the same reasons given above.
Sports:
Sports stadiums are not spared the engineering headaches of increasing bums. For instance, the new Wembley stadium in London, which opened in 2007, was equipped with seats that are 9cm wider and 16cm deeper than those at the old Wembley.
These are just a few examples I wanted to highlight in this post.
The reason African countries should be concerned is that obesity is now going global, as we reported here. Obesity used to be seen as a Western epidemic, but urbanization and infiltration of western lifestyle have robbed the populations of African countries of the ‘immunity’ they used to enjoy against obesity. Unfortunately, scarce economic resources and engineering deficiencies make African countries ill-prepared to deal with the challenges that come with increasing body mass.
Therefore, let us overlook the aesthetic of looking thin and appearing on the front cover of Vogue. The economic of going the opposite direction is terrifying, especially for poorer nations.
This is just Food for Thought.
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