h a l f b a k e r y"It would work, if you can find alternatives to each of the steps involved in this process."
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crime
Shrink-wrap body bags | |
Place the body in one of these, suck the air out and protect the forensic evidence.
FoodSaver
http://www.tilia.com/index.cfm
Kinda like this, but for bodies instead of food? [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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Exactly. Except that the idea is only good for a fairly short time. Human bodies exhale a mighty amount of air post mortem.
It would be good for, say, the transport of a body between crime scene and crime lab. |
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Low pressure inert gas might be better than vacuum. Isn't it more likely that vacuum will promote evaporation of volatiles, and alter the pattern of post-mortem changes ? |
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What if your vacuum pump accidentally sucks up vital hair, fibre or skin flakes from the deceased ? |
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Using a vacuum might promote false petechiae, those broken blood vessels that are very often indicative of asphyxiation as the cause of death. |
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Also creating a vacuum around the corpse might result in the total evacuation of the remaining bowel contents, contaminating any trace evidence. |
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Suggested category- Public:Law Enforcement. |
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Suggested Title: Shrink-Wrap Body Bag |
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Suggested Tag Line: Forensic evidence preservation by vacuum. |
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But wouldn't a vacuum make certain volatile chemicals evaporate faster? Do any forensically important substances react or decompose in air? |
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Only needs to be air-tight, methinks. |
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Bad idea. Consider one of those vacuum bags they sell on TV to compress your travel garmets. |
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Shrink-wrapping anything down to a near vacuum applies tremendous pressure to the applied surface, and would collapse the lungs and soft body tissues. |
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In fact, this is how we would squeeze out the excess glue when laying up carbon fiber / nomex body panels on the solar car. A cheap 14 psi or so, without having to put several tons of weights on the panel. |
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You also run the risk of evacuating important micro-evidence in the process. |
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If you were just removing excess air from surrounding the body and not dropping below atmospheric, that might be okay. |
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