Pacemaker explosions in crematoria

Iain Banks uses this as a hilarious opening line to The Crow Road:<p>&quot;It was the day my grandmother exploded.&quot;

Favorite factoid: one (discontinued) power source for pacemakers is evidently Pu-238.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;osrp.lanl.gov&#x2F;pacemakers.shtml" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;osrp.lanl.gov&#x2F;pacemakers.shtml</a>

I really think that if folks had a better understanding of what happens in cremation, embalmed entombment and unembalmed burial that we would see a massive societal shift towards unembalmed burial.<p>Cremation, in particular, is a nasty bit of business. Those &#x27;ashes&#x27; aren&#x27;t actually ashes: they&#x27;re bone meal.<p>The morticians I know would never be cremated, nor wish their loved ones to be (I don&#x27;t know all the morticians in the world, of course: no doubt there are many who would be fine with it).

Easy (but VERY controversial) solution: people with pacemakers must have a tattoo in the wrist or somewhere else.<p>On a separate note, maybe we should all have a tattoo with some basic info: name (optional), blood type, chronic diseases (diabetes for example), medication allergies, pacemakers, etc.<p>Kinda like the SS tattoos, but without the SS part, naturally.

I&#x27;m aware of a scheme in the UK where Doctors got paid for signing the forms post death certifying a pacemaker is not present in the body. At the end of the week these doctors could collect their not insignificant (roughy £100 a body) &#x27;ash cash&#x27;.

I&#x27;m just a little bit disappointed that the references section does not cite the French singer Charles Trenet:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=p0KWyWwVp0E" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=p0KWyWwVp0E</a>

have xray machines installed at all crematoria... along with good quality kitchen knife.