Cremation is an increasingly popular way to dispose of a loved one's remains after death.
But it's actually a more complex process than you might think. Here's what happens to a
body when it's cremated.
Ironically, a body's journey towards cremation begins with a trip to the refrigerator. Crematories
nowadays have special rooms maintained at low temperatures. This is where the body of
the deceased stays while they're not yet lined up for cremation. When it's time, the staff
retrieve the remains from the refrigerated room in preparation for identification.
Prior to identification, staffers give the deceased one final bath to ensure that the
body is clean and well-dressed, though unless the cremation will be open to the public or
the family specifically asks for it, the deceased will not undergo embalming.
The cremation process officially kicks off with a medical examiner properly identifying
the body, typically with assistance from a relative of the deceased. The body receives
a metal ID tag, which will remain there during the cremation. The family member also authorizes
the cremation process. Meanwhile, it's the examiner's job to confirm that the body isn't
vital in any pending investigations, as medical exams obviously won't be possible post-cremation.
Depending on where the cremation is taking place, the next step in the process is usually
the removal of jewelry, prosthetics, eyeglasses, medical devices, and other accessories from
the body.
Among the first things the technician removes are so-called "cancer seeds"; if the deceased
was undergoing treatment for cancer while they were still alive, chances are the technician
will find some radioactive isotopes implanted in their body. Prosthetics and silicone implants
also don't stay on the body, because they can result in some unpleasant reactions during
the cremation process.
Additionally, the crematory technician takes items from the body that the bereaved would
like to hold onto. However, the technician doesn't remove any pins, screws, or replacement
joints from the deceased. Any items that don't end up in the family's hands undergo recycling
or proper disposal but are never directly reused.
A notoriously dangerous item to leave on a soon-to-be-cremated corpse is an artificial
pacemaker. Cambridgeshire Live reports that a forgotten pacemaker can generate an explosion
powerful enough to send a 40-ton crematory machine flying up to 7 inches off the ground.
A paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reveals that the first recorded
incident of a pacemaker accident during a cremation took place in 1976, resulting in
five explosions and a half-inch-sized hole in the machine.
While the final destination of a person's cremated remains could eventually be inside
an urn or scattered across a significant location, before cremation the body is first placed
in a cremation casket.
According to Neptune Society, the family has the option to purchase either a traditional
casket or a combustible one, with the only requirement being that the casket must be
devoid of metal pieces. A combustible casket is usually the choice for families who plan
to hold a religious service or make the cremation viewable to the public. As the name suggests,
these metal-free coffins are made of bamboo, cloth-covered wood, hardwood, teak, wicker,
plywood, pine, or any other combustible material - even a cardboard box could suffice.
When it's time, the staff wheel the casket into a machine, called a cremation chamber
or retort (but never an "oven"). Technicians preheat the incinerator to about 1,100 degrees
Fahrenheit; during the process itself, temperatures can reach up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Designed to accommodate a single body, the chamber is lined with fire-resistant bricks
that can withstand the heat beyond the hottest temperatures within. For safety reasons, technicians
only open the mechanized, automated doors just enough to let the body slide safely in
without subjecting the room to unbearable heat.
Today's cremation chambers also adhere strictly to state environmental regulations. The cremation
process generates gases and particles, which is why there's a secondary chamber that sucks
them in and takes them through a 30-foot labyrinth of sorts while subjecting them to flames up
to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. By the end of the maze, most of the gases will have already
been incinerated before they can even reach the atmosphere.
Depending on the arrangement, or the religious beliefs of the family, the bereaved may start
the cremation process by pressing a button. And then science takes over.
About three-fourths of the human body is water. During the cremation, all of that moisture
is the first to go, and the body dries up as the heat in the chamber intensifies. The
entire process is a mix of melodramatic and macabre. Body hairs burn up. Skin waxes, welts,
and splits as it burns. The muscles flex one last time, as the scorching heat causes them
to contract. The soft tissues melt into nothingness. And the skeleton? That breaks down bit by
bit, calcifying and crumbling as the chamber torches the remains.
Eerily, because the secondary chamber deals with the resulting gases and particles before
they can make it out, the burning body typically generates no smell. This also prevents any
mercury, such as from dental amalgam fillings, from escaping the chamber.
In some cases, crematoriums use the heat generated by the entire process for warmth — a practical
use of all that energy, considering how some can cremate up to 3,000 bodies yearly.
Even with the metal tag and precautionary guidelines in place, the fear of a crematory
mix-up — whether it involves the wrong body getting cremated or a family receiving the
wrong ashes — is ever-present. However, cremations are done separately, one body at
a time, to greatly minimize the risk of any of these unfortunate events happening.
Still, the unthinkable has happened on rare occasions. In 2018, for instance, a woman
in Texas was supposed to be buried but was accidentally cremated instead. And in 2015,
a family was sent the ashes of an unknown stranger rather than their family member.
So, how long does it take to cremate a body? The answer is essentially "it depends." Various
factors affect the duration of the process, such as the type and quality of the cremation
equipment and chamber, as well as the nature of the cremation casket.
The weight of the deceased is another important consideration. The heat inside the chamber
burns fat rather quickly, yet an obese body can take longer to cremate — and, in some
cases, can generate more gases and particles than the after-chamber can handle.
It's safe to say that a typical cremation can last from 60 minutes to three hours, though
most take between 90 and 120 minutes. The staff can check the status of the cremated
body through a spy hole, but only when the chamber isn't firing off pillars of flames.
Interestingly enough, the word "ashes" is a bit of a misnomer. Despite spending hours
getting blasted by extreme heat, the body that went into the cremation chamber doesn't
come out of it looking like a pile of ash. While "ashes" is the more commonly used term,
it's more accurate to call them "cremains," because that's precisely what they are: the
cremated remains of bones that have turned coarse and grayish instead of powder-like.
As you can imagine, the resulting cremains are piping hot, making them unsafe to handle
with bare hands. Technicians use a long rod, like a farmer's rake or hoe, to gather them
up, putting them in a separate container and leaving them alone until they're cool enough
to inspect.
By the end of the cremation process, what used to be a human body turns into less than
10 pounds' worth of cremains.
After some time, the technician inspects the cooled cremains for any remaining scraps of
metal, from dental or surgical implants. These technicians use forceps and strong magnets
that make the metal elimination process easier. After stripping the cremains of metal, the
metal is sent off to be recycled or disposed of following state regulations. It's important
to separate the leftover metal from the cremains, as those bits can cause problems in the next
part of the process.
The cremains undergo one more step before the crematory prepares to send them back to
the family of the deceased. It's time to pulverize the little chunks and fragments of dried bone
into sand-like particles. To accomplish this, technicians use a machine called a cremulator,
which is a sort of high-powered grinder or blender that quickly pulverizes the bone fragments
using ball bearings or sharp, rotating blades.
After the deceased has been cremated, there are a number of options that the bereaved
can pick to serve as their loved one's final resting place. However, this isn't an instantaneous
process. According to Lincoln Heritage, it may take anywhere between a week and ten days
before the crematory finishes preparing the cremains for the family, depending on their
internal policies.
By far, one of the most popular options is a cremation urn. The staff places a plastic
bag containing the ashes into the urn, which they then hand over to the family. The family
can either purchase the urn directly from the crematory or buy from a different source.
Urns don't necessarily have to look plain and undecorated, though. You can get designer
urns that come in every shape possible, from an urn with a famous dictator's face on it,
to a "Star Trek"-inspired container.
"The urn. It's the only place!"
Sometimes, families may go for more personalized or unique ways of storing cremains. Some opt
to bury the urn or position it under a significant spot, like a sculpture or a tree. Others place
the cremains inside pendants or lockets, so that they can take their dearly departed with
them wherever they travel. There are even family members who opt to compress the carbon-rich
cremains into cremation diamonds.
For some folks, the idea of having their ashes scattered across the ocean or all over their
favorite spot is the truest form of returning to nature. As romantic as it may seem in books
and movies, however, it's not something your loved ones can easily do for you someday.
In fact, it's illegal in quite a few places — and if your loved ones get caught, your
final resting place will most likely be a landfill.
Unsurprisingly, amusement parks are at the top of the list of places where it's illegal
to scatter ashes. According to a 2018 article in The Wall Street Journal, a "HEPA cleanup"
immediately follows any attempt to scatter cremains in Disney parks - which, according
to employees, is apparently a monthly thing. If you and your deceased loved one were fans
of Mickey Mouse, getting caught would probably be the worst thing for both of you: The cremains
would end up in the trash, and you'll get kicked out of the Happiest Place on Earth.
"If you insist on disposing your loved ones in a theme park, take them over to Busch Gardens!
Because anything goes over there!"
Other places where you can't scatter ashes: golf courses, sports stadiums, or any kind
of private property. If it's any consolation, you can send your loved one's ashes into outer
space, though it'll cost you between $2,500 and $12,500 - a cost that not everyone wants
to pay.
"We're scattering the f--king ashes! Look, just because we're bereaved doesn't make us
saps!"
As mentioned earlier, the cremation process ends up generating large quantities of gas
and particles. And while the after-chamber exists to deal with this, according to CNN
it's not always enough, especially with the rising number of cremations. So it's not surprising
that experts have been working to come up with a more environmentally-friendly alternative.
According to Popular Mechanics, alkaline hydrolysis (also called liquid cremation) started out
as a means of disposing of infected animal carcasses. The operator heats up a stainless
steel, pressurized chamber full of water and potassium hydroxide to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Within three hours, it can turn a body into a goopy, greenish-brown liquid, leaving only
softened bones and non-organic matter behind. A fortuitous side effect of this process,
particularly from the perspective of human cremation, is that it generates fewer pollutants,
including reduced carbon monoxide.
Alkaline hydrolysis seems like a fantastic alternative to modern cremation, but there
are some downsides to it. For starters, it's a lot more expensive: Crematories can expect
to spend up to a cool $500,000 for the chamber, which is five times what a basic cremation
chamber costs. The process also takes longer than cremation - up to 16 hours, according
to the Cremation Association of North America - and for now, it's illegal in many states.
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