Cremating Problems  

Pacemakers have to be removed before a body is cremated, because there is otherwise a danger of explosion in the crematorium oven. Something similar may have to happen with silicone breast implants because silicone resists high temperatures and it leaves a gooey mess behind. But it is very hard to tell whether corpses have had breast enhancement without a mammogram. Cleaning staff are not best pleased at having to scrape the syrup-like silicone up from the brickwork of the ovens. There are even calls for the next-of-kin to be hauled in to do the job. This is no small issue - there have been 2 million breast implants in the USA alone, and American surgeons do about 180,000 breast augmentations every year, mostly on women in their twenties. So, the problem is likely to swell as time passes. Jack Springer, director of the Cremation Association of North America, recognizes the problem, “The silicone does not evaporate. Basically, it remains at the bottom and is messy to clean up.” But, he claims that since most of the operations change flat chests to small breasts, the size of the problem must in not be over-inflated: “There are not a lot of 56D's out there.”