Living Today: Issues of modern living

MORE DEMAND FOR BE BIGGER PARKING SPACES

The ballooning numbers of sport utility vehicles, minivans and light trucks could result in the end of compact car parking spaces, The New York Times reports.

With San Diego, Riverside and Santa Clarita among the latest cities to eliminate parking spaces for compact cars, nearly four-dozen cities and counties across California have adopted similar requirements for parking lots where Ford Excursions and Chevrolet Suburbans are muscling out the Honda Civics and Geo Metros.

Experts predict that as long as people are buying the larger vehicles communities will be willing to accommodate them, no matter how much the SUV's pollute.

In 2001, small cars constituted 14.2 percent of car sales nationally, a drop from 23 percent a decade earlier, according to data from Ward's AutoInfoBank. Over the same period, sales of SUV's, vans and light trucks rose to 44.9 percent of vehicles sold in 2001, from 33.3 percent in 1991.

In general, communities that changed regulations created spaces 8 to 9 feet wide and 18 to 20 feet long. In many parking lots, the new dimensions created spaces that are 12 to 18 inches wider, at the cost of up to 20 percent of the spaces.

However, some complain the enlarged slots are still too small.

AMERICANS GETTING FATTER, FASTER

Americans are getting fatter at younger ages, and the percentage of adults who are actually obese doubled since the 1960s, according to a new study of 9,179 people.

Results of the study appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study finds:

-- Twenty-six percent of men and 28 percent of women were obese by the time they were 35 to 37.

-- Young adults are becoming obese faster. People born in 1964 became obese 26 percent to 28 percent faster than those born in 1957.

-- Ethnic differences appeared in weight development. Black women and Hispanic men became obese most rapidly.

-- Overweight young adults, especially women, were at significant risk of becoming obese by age 35 to 37.

In women, mild overweight was linked with at least a 60 percent chance of obesity.

-- According to U.S. statistics, in 1960-1962 13 percent of adults aged 20 to 74 were obese, while a total of 44 percent weighed more than is healthy. In 1999, 27 percent of Americans were actually obese, while 61 percent weighed more than is healthy.

Obesity is a risk factor for four of the six most frequent causes of death in the United States: heart disease, certain cancers, stroke, and diabetes. It is also linked to hypertension, osteoarthritis and pregnancy complications.

INSECT REPELLENT FROM TOMATOES

A substance produced by tomatoes repels mosquitoes and other insects more effectively and is safer than DEET, the chemical most commonly used in insect repellents, sais a North Carolina State University scientist.

Work by Dr. Michael Roe shows that the natural compound found in tomatoes is so effective at repelling insects that the university patented the substance.

Roe believes the substance, which Insect Biotechnology is calling IBI-246, has the potential to replace DEET as the active ingredient in most insect repellents.

"People have been looking for a competitive product to DEET for 20 years and I think this is it," says Dr. John Bennett, chairman of Insect Biotechnology.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed DEET for the Army in 1946. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has registered approximately 230 products containing DEET, and the EPA estimates that one-third of the U.S. population uses DEET each year.

The EPA has found that the normal use of DEET does not present a health concern to the general population, but the use of products containing DEET has been associated with rashes, swelling and itching, eye irritation and, less frequently, slurred speech, confusion and seizures.