"You can cremate almost anything with a body..."

[Pretender]

"...except pacemakers. They explode"

Damn the crazy facts you learn on the discovery channel...

 

[shiner]

I read somewhere once that glass eyes do the same thing. Makes sense...

 

[woodly6]

What about sugical pins in like hips and stuff?


Or do they just get real hot?

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

What causes the pacemaker to explode, did they say? Wouldn't a glass eye just melt?

 

[Pretender]

No, they didn't mention it. The show was about morticians, and the guy talking mentioned that the dead man was going to be cremated with his favorite shirt, and then he mentioned that corpses could be cremated with almost anything, 'cept pacemakers. He didn't mention why pacemakers explode, I'd guess it's the battery.

As for glass eyes, they should probably just melt, but admittedly I've never stood around burning glass to see what'd happen.

 

[snakesnfrogs]

FIRE! FIRE!


I, too, am wondering why the pacemaker would explode---could it be the batteries?

 

[Buddhist]

"What causes the pacemaker to explode, did they say?"

Perhaps because they have batteries inside?

"Wouldn't a glass eye just melt?"
Maybe its compressed glass...that would explode if exposed to high enough heat...

interesting questions. i wonder what the real answer is.
-M.T.O

 

[snakesnfrogs]

read what an exploding pacemaker is like---WHOA!


edit: apparently most pacemakers are powered by radioactive materials and heating them causes the explosions and the release of radioactive particles

 

[spamboy]

what if you had a heart of stone?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

the bones don't cremate. When someone is cremated, they have to grind the bones. Bonies don't burn down like flesh does, and cremation isn't going to happen over hours and hours... so they just grind.

 

[Bignate603]

Depends where you are. Some american crematories can incinerate bone, they raise the temprature high enough.

 

[SuperTool]

Maybe there are some toxic fumes from burning pacemakers...

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

<< Some american crematories can incinerate bone, they raise the temprature high enough >>

Nope... Saw it on a special having to do with supposed-spontaneous human combustion. Bones don't cremate unless the heat is high for long periods of time. Cremations aren't long. That's the whole point. Crematorians aren't going to wait hoursand hours (days?) for them to burn.