UAE to ban bathroom scales in bid to combat obesity crisis

In what many health professionals have suggested could be a crucial step in the ongoing fight against the country’s obesity problem, the UAE this morning revealed that it was banning the import, production and sale of all forms of bathroom scales.

“This is a bold and confident move,” said leading regional wellbeing expert Dr Sheila Welp. “As we all know, a person can only be diagnosed with obesity on discovery of their body mass index. But without any way of ascertaining their weight, this is absolutely impossible. No scales, no obesity.”

The UAE has set out an ambitious plan to completely remove all bathroom scales across the country by 2016, a target that it hopes could see obesity eradicated within the next five years.