Obesity Epidemic Impacts Crematoriums

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Overweight and Obesity, CDC.gov, Aug. 26, 2006:

Since the mid-seventies, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children. Data from two NHANES surveys show that among adults aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% (in the 1976–1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003–2004 survey).

This obesity epidemic is causing considerable trouble for the cremation industry as explained in Tom Edwards, Too fat for cremation, Worchester News (England), April 19, 2007:

[Overweight] people in Worcester are having to be cremated outside the city because the crematorium furnace is not big enough to cope.

Undertakers are having to take bodies to Bristol and Redditch to be cremated.

The problem has arisen because Astwood Road crematorium is too narrow for the super-sized coffins used for bigger people.

More than 400 councils across [England] have been told by the Local Government Association to provide bigger furnaces to deal with [overweight] people.