Vertical desk to fight obesity

RECKON work feels like a treadmill now? Try a new desk designed at the Mayo Clinic.
They've built what they call a "vertical workstation" - a desk fitted over a standard treadmill. They persuaded 15 obese people to work at this treadmill-desk and measured how many calories they burned.
If an overweight office worker used this vertical workstation all day, every day for a year, he or she could lose up to 66 pounds (30kg), the researchers report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
James Levine and Jennifer Miller measured how many calories their 15 volunteers burned using exhaled breath but did not determine if the volunteers lost weight.
On average, their overweight volunteers burned 100 calories more every hour while walking slowly - at 1.6km per hour - than while sitting in a chair.
"If obese individuals were to replace time spent sitting at the computer with walking computer time by 2 to 3 hours a day, and if other components of energy balance were constant, a weight loss of 20 to 30 kg a year could occur," the researchers said.
The researchers said their desk costs approximately $US1600.
"With population body weight, workplace sedentariness and healthcare costs projected to increase, interventions that allow people to work and yet be active could help reverse obesity," they said.
************************************************************************
*FOR MORE INFORMATION
Obesity is a major health problem all over the world, but especially in the United States. This problem affects us all whether we are obese or not. For more information on the severity of the problem in the United States, see the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/index.htm.

*QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Do you think that the vertical workstation is a good idea?

Should people over a certain weight be required to use the vertical workstation?

Do you think that governments and/or companies should provide their workers with a place to exercise and time to do so?

What else can be done to help?

************************************************************************