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"We&amp;#039;ve all heard the stories about airlines asking obese people to buy an extra seat on a plane to accommodate their size, but this is the first time I&amp;#039;ve caught wind of the &amp;quot;Fat Surcharge.&amp;quot; As reported by ABC, Natural Nails salon in Dekalb County, Georgia, tacked on an extra $5 to Michelle Fonville&amp;#039;s bill. Salon owner Kim Tran&amp;#039;s reasoning: Her pedicure chairs have a weight limit of 200 pounds and cost $2,500 to fix. &amp;quot;Do you think that&amp;#039;s fair when we take $24 [for manicure and pedicure] and have to pay $2,500? No,&amp;quot; Tran told WSB-TV. Yes, a weight-limit of 200 pounds is laughably low\u2014many fit men (and some fit women) meet that mark easily and often. And Tran was being inarguably discriminatory. &amp;quot;I was humiliated,&amp;quot; Fonville said. Still yet, the cost of servicing an overweight person can be exorbitant, and not just for nail salons. Hospitals deal with it (&amp;quot;Obesity causes a minimum $1,429 increase, or 42 percent in medical costs,&amp;quot; according to Daniel Emmer, public relations manager of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield) as do retail manufacturers (&amp;quot;In spot assessments, prices were 12 to 17 percent higher for plus size versions&amp;quot; due to the cost of fabric, thread, trim and so on, according to MSNBC). Is it fair that overweight individuals aren&amp;#039;t charged for the extra labor they often require while, in many other service industries, individuals are charged for their extra baggage? Last week, I went to BLOW hair salon to get my hair blown out for an upcoming wedding. The treatment would cost anywhere between $20 to $40 dollars depending on my hair&amp;#039;s thickness and length, the stylist told me. I paid $40. In Fonville&amp;#039;s defense, my esthetician informed me of the charge before she performed the service. Tran&amp;#039;s sneaky add-on post-service was plainly rude. But the fact of the matter is that I paid $20 more plus $4 more in tip partially due to something I have no control over, while obesity is controllable. While Tran was clearly in the wrong and her plan of attack was poorly executed, did her action have a glimmer of validity? \u2013 Brynn Mannino, Assistant Editor "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/news/a45161/georgia-woman-charged-extra-for-mani-pedi-for-being-overweight-2061/>