The more pounds, the pricier the ticket

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weight gain is a well-known problem for people who want to live long and healthy lives, but who would ever think that it would affect the health of the &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/08/18/49370.html' target=_blank>airline industry.

In a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the Atlanta-based federal agency said that bigger luggage is not the only thing weighing down airliners and causing them to burn more costly fuel. In fact, the CDC said, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds during the 1990s -- requiring an extra 350 million gallons of jet fuel to fly them around during 2000, reports NewsDay.

According to Scotsman, "The &to=http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=14392' target=_blank>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.