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The published a story on July 4, 2010 on a study by UNE's Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research that determined that of 17 Maine employers with a combined work force of 17,000, the percentage of overweight and obese workers will increase from 62 percent now to 80 percent in nine years if current trends continue. William Perry, a data specialist at the center, explained that a rise in health problems such as diabetes and heart disease will be close behind. The companies' total annual costs - due to lost work time and health care - will climb from $6.1 million to $10.6 million. "The combined cost of overweight and obesity at these 17 companies," Perry said, "is estimated to be $75 million" over the next nine years. Robert Ross, scientific director of UNE's Maine-Harvard Prevention Research Center, told the reporter, "this should scare the pants off employers. ... We have to go back into schools and do something about the next generation of workers." Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the last three decades, and overweight kids tend to become obese adults, according to Ross and other experts.