In a state where nearly 30 percent of the population is considered obese by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, University researcher Ishak Mansi partially blames the unattractive design of stairs for America’s growing problem.A report authored by Mansi focuses on how making stairs more attractive could result in a long-term solution for obesity. Encouraging people to use stairs instead of escalators or elevators is a practical way to increase physical output, but the unappealing design of stairs keeps people from using them on a regular basis, Mansi said.”In my area of work, I don’t mind using the steps, but I usually can’t find them,” Mansi said. “They are usually hidden under a fire exit. If you do find them, they are very steep and uncomfortable, they have no air-conditioning and you can’t get your cell phone to work on them.”Ishak Mansi’s wife, Nardine Mansi, is an architect and co-authored the report. Complying with government regulations on multi-story building design usually results in stairs being located in obscure parts of the building with elevators being a central feature of the design, Nardine Mansi said.”There needs to be a cultural change in the mind of architects and owners,” said Nardine Mansi. “We need to increase the area of steps to make them more comfortable and make them the focal point of the building instead of having elevators fancy in the middle of the entrances of the building. We can make stairs the nice part of the building with music and lights and really make them cheerful so people will want to use them.”Ishak Mansi explained that leisure time activities — like exercising — only make up 5 percent of people’s daily physical output, while the other 95 percent of a person’s physical output is related to jobs and conducting mundane tasks. So making changes that moderately increase a person’s daily energy output — like taking the stairs at work — will yield much greater results in the long term. “It’s ironic that people have the actual stairs in front of them at work, and they don’t chose them,” Ishak Mansi said. “But then they go home or to a gym and pay for something that simulates the stairs.”Nardine Mansi argues that local and state authorities should reward building owners that design their buildings to be friendly to physical health, similarly to how state authorities give tax incentives to energy efficient building.—–Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]