Experts warn that some lifts could become unsafe as manufacturers have failed to adjust their stated capacities to accommodate rising obesity rates. Due to outdated signs and overlooked weight allowances, these lifts are at risk of being overloaded.
Some lifts could now be unsafe as manufacturers have failed to adjust their stated capacities in line with soaring obesity rates, experts warn. Elevators are required to display signs showing the maximum number of people they can carry but these have not been updated for over two decades.
It means they are increasingly at risk of being overloaded even when they are transporting the number of passengers they have supposedly been built for, a conference heard. Professor Nick Finer, of the International Prader Willi Syndrome Organisation, took photos of 112 lift weight limit signs over 50 years in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Finland. The lifts had been manufactured by 21 companies between 1970 and 2024.
He found the average weight allowance per person - calculated by dividing the stated maximum load by the stated maximum number of passengers - increased broadly in line with average body weight between 1972 and 2002, rising from around 62kg to 75kg per person. But companies have used the same limit ever since, despite average weights continuing to rise.
In the mid-1970s the average British man weighed 75kg and a woman 65kg, but that has ballooned to 86kg and 73kg, respectively. Lifts are increasingly at risk of being overloaded even when they are transporting the number of passengers they have supposedly been built for. Professor Finer told the European Congress on Obesity, in Istanbul, that US scientists proposed raising the standard to 80kg in the 2020s but it was not widely adopted.
Manufacturers' assumption that each person fills a floor area shaped like a small oval is also outdated as bulging waistlines mean many are now big and round, he added
Obesity Capacity Signs Overloading Issue Lifting Capacity Weight Allowances
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Lifts refuse to adapt to soaring obesity rates, posing safety risksManufacturers have failed to update lift capacities in line with rising obesity rates, leading to the risk of overloading them, despite new data showing an increase in average body weights.
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