North Dakota woman plans to give obese kids letters on Halloween

By David Bailey

(Reuters) - A North Dakota woman told a local radio station that on Halloween she will give children she considers obese a sternly-worded letter for their parents along with candy.

The woman, who gave her name only as "Cheryl," said she would still hand out candy but planned to give some trick-or-treaters a sealed envelope with a letter for their parents, she said Tuesday in a call to a radio station in Fargo.

"I am not denying any of the kids candy," she said. "I am just hoping the parents are going to read this and think about it while they watch their kids get into bigger and bigger sizes of clothes," according to a recording of the radio show.

"As far as we know Cheryl is a local Fargo woman that thinks it is her mission to watch out for the overweight children of Fargo," radio host Corey Schaffer said Wednesday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said the percentage of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in the United States who were obese in 2010 was 17 percent.

Schaffer, who goes by Zero as a host of the Y94 show, said the woman exchanged emails with the station for a couple of days and was scheduled in advance to call in Tuesday.

Schaffer said Cheryl's Halloween plan has sparked some "nasty, nasty responses."

Among the responses was "Ready, Eggs, FIRE." Others suggested she pass out healthier treats or not answer her door.

Cheryl's letter reads in part, "Your child is, in my opinion, moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats to the extent of some children this Halloween season.

"My hope is that you will step up as a parent and ration candy this Halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits."

Halloween has been a season of radio pranks since Orson Welles radio broadcast adaptation of "War of the Worlds" sparked fears of an East Coast alien invasion 75 years ago, but Schaffer said the station was not perpetrating a hoax and he did not believe Cheryl was either.

In the radio appearance, the woman said, "I just think that parents should take more responsibility for their kids becoming little fat kids."

Cheryl added, "I don't want to be the mean lady. I don't want to be the lady that everybody avoids."

(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Greg McCune and Kenneth Barry)

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Obese airline passengers should pay extra, economist says

(Reuters) - Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that "pay as you weigh" pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

"To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers," Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

"As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines" and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called "pay as you weigh airline pricing."

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta's preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares - high, average and low, Bhatta said.

Airlines have grappled for years with how to deal with larger passengers as waistlines have steadily expanded. Such carriers as Air France and Southwest Airlines allow overweight passengers to buy extra seats and get a refund on them.

Asked about charging heavier passengers extra, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: "We have our own policies in place and don't anticipate changing those."

United Air Lines Inc requires passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. A spokeswoman said the carrier would not discuss "future pricing."

About two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight.

In a 2010 online survey for the travel website Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net), 76 percent of travelers said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they needed an extra seat.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Andrew Hay)

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