Bodies too big for crematorium

7:00pm Tuesday 1st August 2006

Cemeteries are having to be equipped with new super-sized burners to cope with the growing number of obese corpses in East Lancashire.

It's a startling example of how a poor diet and lack of exercise can even affect us after death.

Already funeral directors in Burnley with coffins wider than 30inches are forced to take them for cremation at Pleasington cemetery in Blackburn which can take coffins up to 35ins.

But Pleasington crematorium staff have revealed that even their biggest cremator is not wide enough to cope with the size of some coffins that funeral directors are now producing.

Plans have had to be put in place to install much bigger ovens over the next five years to cope with larger coffins, which currently have to be taken to either Manchester or Nottingham, where cremators can take coffins up to 44ins wide.

To cope with a mounting obesity problem in the region, larger fridges have been installed in the mortuaries at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General.

And one East Lancashire nutritionist believes the problem is just an "obvious consequence" of the increase in obesity in the region.

Mik Ince, cemeteries manager for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "Pleasington has got one of the biggest cremators in East Lancashire but even then we are looking to get a bigger cremator within the next five years.

"We take funerals from all over the region where the coffin is too big for the cremator and know that the size of coffins will continue to increase as people get larger.

"We want to be able to provide families with the facilities so they can hold the cremation where they want to and not have to travel to find a big enough cremator or opt for a burial.

"People are getting larger and the cremator must be big enough to facilitate adequate combustion around the coffin.

"Everything is getting larger and we have to be ready to meet demand."

Harry Gibbs, Blackburn and Accrington secretary for the National Association of Funeral Directors, said: "This is a health and safety issue we don't want to get the coffin to the crematorium and find that it is too big.

"Bodies are weighed in the mortuary before we get them and we also work to a weight limit of 25 stones.

"Bodies are not normally that heavy but the size of bodies is increasingly becoming an issue."

A spokesman for Burnley Funeral Directors Alderson and Horan said they had been forced to take a number of larger coffins for cremation at Pleasington because they were too big for Burnley.

He said: "Burnley can only take 30-inch wide coffins and although we don't get many larger than that the number is definitely growing and can cause problems now and again.

"We tend to ring up the hospital to get measurements before we collect a body and can then advise the family where the cremation can be held or advise them that a burial is another option.

"We once had a body that was so big it needed a double grave."

Jenny Slaughter, a nutritionist for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust, said: "This is symptomatic of the growing problem of obesity in East Lancashire.

"The cost of obesity is calculated at around £5billion a year and that is without taking into account indirect costs as having to install bigger fridges and weighing scales in hospital mortuaries.

"The need for bigger coffins, bigger cremators and bigger grave plots is just the same as the increasing size of airline seats.

"Something must be done to prevent this obesity problem worsening as the cost to the individual and society are escalating."