Lift capacity signs are not keeping pace with bulging waistlines in Britain, an obesity expert has warned. A study found that weight estimates used to determine the maximum number of people who can fit into a lift are now out of date.
The average weight of a UK man has risen from 75kg in the 1970s to 86kg today, while a woman’s typical weight rose from 65kg to 73kg. Professor Nick Finer, president of the International Prader Willi Syndrome Organisation, took photos of 112 lifts across Europe.
He found that the assumed average weight of lift users increased significantly between 1972 and 2004. But it has since stalled at 75kg per person, despite an average population weight of 79kg.
Prof Finer said: “This became a sort of obsession for me but there is a serious point. If we don’t recognise growing trends in obesity and body size then we’re really making it hard for those people to function in our society.”
Prof Finer said there had been a shift towards manufacturers estimating capacity by calculating the amount of space people take up on the floor.
He added: “But they assume the shape of a person is an oval rather than a circle. They have completely failed to recognise that if obesity is increasing then so is the amount of room you take up.”
Prof Finer warned that the trend “risks stigmatising people who have obesity”. He added that he was “not a lift engineer” but was aware of cases where people have become stuck in lifts because the total weight limit was exceeded despite the number of passengers being below the recommended limit.
Presenting his findings at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday, he added: “We need sadly to supersize many things in life.
“In hospitals, for example, many of the doorways will not accommodate a wheelchair that has been designed for somebody living with obesity — they are just too narrow. Those have real safety issues.
“Society as a whole is lagging behind the secular trends that we see in terms of increasing overweight and obesity.”
Jane DeVille-Almond, president of the British Obesity Society, said: “We need to accept that society is unlikely to revert to sizes from 50 years ago, and start developing facilities for the 21st century.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
