Auburn, Dec. 3-- "It" has been ballyhooed as the greatest invention since the internet, but it also could be the worst threat to cardiovascular health since the greasy spoon.

The mysterious "It," developed by famed inventor Dean Kamen at a cost of more than $100 million dollars, is officially dubbed the Segway Human Transporter. Debuted with much fanfare Dec. 3 on "Good Morning America," the transporter is touted by its inventor as the solution to congested streets and polluted air.

Instead of driving to work in the city in a 4,000-pound, air-polluting vehicle every morning, suburban commuters will soon have the option of using the 65-pound scooter, which can travel as fast as 17 miles per hour, says Kamen.

In fact, the battery-powered scooter may make both driving and walking obsolete, because a distance that once took a good half hour to walk by foot can now be completed in a fraction of the time, less than 10 minutes, using Kamen’s new scooter.

That’s precisely what concerns nutritional and fitness experts, because, in addition to making our lives less hectic and our air much cleaner, the new gadget may exact a huge cost in terms of physical health.

"For the most part, Americans are more unfit than ever before," says Dr. Bob Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutritionist. "And I’m afraid that if this new device catches on and more and more people use it as a substitute for walking, we’re going to be worse off than ever."

Research has consistently shown that rising levels of heart disease and diabetes are directly linked to obesity, which, in turn, is associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

Osteoporosis, a crippling disease associated with reduced bone mass and especially associated with older women, also is linked with reduced physical activity.

Within the last 20 years, Keith says, levels of inactivity among Americans have spiked – a factor he attributes to the explosion of cable television, video games and desktop computers.

"With all this entertainment at their fingertips, many people just don’t have a very big incentive to be physically active," he says, "and I’m afraid this scooter will only make things worse."

"In a large city, for example, it isn’t uncommon for someone in an office building to walk, say, five blocks to a local restaurant to eat a 1,000-calorie meal," he says. "Now, what took 15 or 20 minutes of fast-paced walking can be completed with virtually no physical exertion in only a fraction of the time, allowing the person more time to sit and possibly eat more."

"Even worse, you’re not going to be burning those calories on the way back to the office."

The U.S. Postal Service, General Electric and the National Park Service will be among the first customers to acquire the new devices, spending about $8,000 a piece on 80-pound heavy duty models.

The city of Atlanta also is purchasing several dozen scooters for city employees on an experimental basis to determine how much the devices help cut down on fuel emissions and traffic congestion.

Kamen hopes to turn out a 65-pound, $3,000 consumer model sometime in late 2002.

Some experts who gained sneak previews of the scooter before its debut on "Good Morning America" believe the device will have as big an impact as the personal computer and the internet. Others say it’s just a lot of corporate hype.

Even so, Kamen believes the machine’s convenience will be too good to resist. Using a series of onboard gyroscopes and computers, the machine is self-balancing and operates with no engine, throttle, gearshift or steering wheel.

In a manner of speaking, it "kind of walks for you," Kamen says.

Yet, while the new technology may advance us much further toward the ideal of the moving sidewalks depicted in "The Jetsons" cartoon series, it also raises the level of physical inactivity and, ultimately, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis, Keith says.

"All I can say is that if we all start using this new device routinely, we had better be finding some way to make up for the loss of physical exercise that will accompany it," Keith says. "Otherwise, we’re going to be in really bad shape – worse than we are now."