Dr. Gregory Schmunk, the medical examiner of Polk County, Iowa, and a former consultant to CSI, described the problem to the Des Moines Register this week. Many of today's corpses top 300 pounds, so Schmunk has to pay a local funeral home $250 per body when extra help, equipment and hands are needed. (Iowa ranks 20th in adult obesity, with nearly one-quarter of its population overweight.) A Polk County employee recently strained his arm after trying to move a large corpse.
Apparently, obese bodies aren't just a problem for coroners. They also create special concerns for crematoria operators. Extra fat generates extra heat, causing all sorts of problems, according to this post on a public health bulletin board:
"Due to the high fat content, obese human remains generate tremendous amounts of heat. Equipment damage e.g., warping of the primary chamber, uncontrolled fires, copious amounts of smoke, secondary fires from pooling of melted body fat and explosions from same have all occurred."
