Some folks are in denial about the worldwide obesity epidemic. Not those of us who have taken a cross-country road trip, though. While there may be fewer people on the Great Plains these days the total combined weight of the heartattackland’s population hasn’t dropped an ounce. Thank God U.S. House seats are apportioned by population numbers and not population mass.

Well, here’s some fresh evidence—via Drudge—for the doubters and living/chewing-in-denial types: “Study: Longer Needles Needed for Fatter Buttocks.â€�

Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said on Monday. Standard-sized needles failed to reach the buttock muscle in 23 out of 25 women whose rears were examined after what was supposed to be an intramuscular injection of a drug…

Besides patients receiving less than the correct drug dosage, medications that remain lodged in fat can cause infection or irritation, researchers Victoria Chan said.

“There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause. We have identified a new problem related, in part, to the increasing amount of fat in patients’ buttocks,” Chan said.

Obesity affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is based on a measure of height versus weight that produces a body mass index above 30. An estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.