The Role and Importance of a Mortuary
Mortuary is place where dead bodies are kept before cremation whereas Morgue is a place where dead bodies are kept in the refrigerated body store and examined in a postmortem room.
The mortuaries are generally located in a far off isolated corner of the hospital with facilities for body preservation and autopsy. It is regarded as a culturally sensitive area of the hospital. While considering the support and utility services of a hospital, the role and importance of mortuary services cannot be ignored.
In addition to hospitals, mortuaries form an integral part of many medical colleges, which are also engaged in performing autopsies. Apart from serving several medico legal purposes, a mortuary also serves the purpose for teaching the undergraduate and postgraduate medical students.
It is often pointed out by many medical experts that majority of mortuaries or postmortem buildings across the country need immediate attention with reference to creating a pleasant atmosphere, so that even the most reluctant mortuary visitor would not mind entering the complex.
In order to preserve the dead body, it is embalmed with formaldehyde which is volatile and has a characteristic pungent, irritating odour. The body is further stored in a refrigerated environment. Although the decomposition of a dead body is slow in the refrigerated environment, it never stops and leads to accumulation of gases such as Thiol, Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), Ammonia (NH3), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOX).
Airborne molecules of these gases permeate into entire mortuary complex, and are the reason behind the foul odour emanating from an autopsy room and entire mortuary complex as a whole.
Formaldehyde represents the greatest risk for staff working in mortuaries. Formaldehyde vaporizes at room temperature and becomes a gas that can be easily inhaled. Exposure to even very low amount of formaldehyde gas can cause:
• Headaches
• Eye, nose, throat irritation
• Dermatitis
• Difficulties in breathing
Formaldehyde is classified as a probable human carcinogen by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health Canada. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), USA, the permissible exposure limit for formaldehyde in the work place is 0.75 parts per million averaged over an 8-hour work day. The odour threshold for formaldehyde is between 0.1-1.0 ppm. Essentially this means that if you can smell it there is a pretty good chance that air quality does not meet safety standards.
Other gases like Thiol, Hydrogen Sulphide, also can be detected by human olfactory senses in concentrations as low as few parts per billion. Exposure to even low levels of these gases can also irritate the eyes, cause sore throat, shortness of breath and fluid accumulation in the lungs.
Bry-Air Odour Control System is ideal for removing toxic gases and eliminating odour from air. It purifies the air inside the mortuary and autopsy room through the process of adsorption and chemisorption, in which air is filtered and cleaned out when gaseous contaminants are neutralized while passing through a chemical filter. The cleaning of contaminated air occurs at molecular level when a pollutant gas molecule reacts with chemical present in the filter.
Bry-Air Gas Phase Filtration Systems are designed to remove contaminant gas upto acceptable level.
Bry-Air offers various types of air purification cation systems depending upon the method of purification and known parameters related to airflow, types and concentrations of impurities present in air, space availability and desired media life.
Bry-Air’s revolutionary macro porus honeycomb matrix technology based chemical filter facilitates highly efficient chemisorption process by holding maximum possible amount of chemical media for filtration process for a given size and geometry of the filter and has maximum air carrying capacity for a given pressure drop. It can neutralize even ultra-low concentration of gaseous contamination in the air stream.
Bry-Air Honeycomb Chemical Filters are UL certified for highest standard of safety and quality.
Bry-Air has a wide range of proprietary chemical media for removing gas phase contamination. BrySorb offers a wide range of combination of Activated Carbon and Activated Alumina impregnated with proprietary chemicals which destroy any gaseous contaminant like Thiol, Formaldehyde, Ammonia (NH3), Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), and Methane (CH4).
The chemical in the filter gets consumed over time as it reacts with corrosive gases. Therefore, it needs to be replaced. Determining the time of replacement is important so that media is not replaced when its life is not over or we keep on using the media even after the chemical has been consumed. Bry-Air has in-house lab to facilitate media check at regular intervals. Just send us the sample of the chemical media and we will let you know the life of the chemical.
Bry-Air, the leaders in dehumidification…worldwide, is a global solution provider for humidity control, moisture removal, product drying, gas phase filtration and plastics auxiliaries. Bry-Air Dehumidifiers are designed to meet the most stringent moisture/humidity control needs and are available from compact models to very complex engineered systems. The Airgineers at Bry-Air have several years of application engineering experience and are trained to provide solutions in moisture and humidity control for varied industrial applications. A Pahwa Group company, Bry-Air Asia has 2 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in India and fully owned subsidiaries in Malaysia, China, Switzerland and Brazil and an associate plant in USA, supported by a worldwide sales and service network. With installations in over 80 countries in almost every industry, Bry-Air touches your life round the clock!
Innovation, both in technology as well as business processes, is the driving philosophy of the Pahwa Group. The Group has filed 11 international patents in the last 5 years in energy smart technologies related to air engineering. The Group has 1400+ employees in 6 continents and 11 manufacturing plants. Bry-Air is one of the flagship companies of the Pahwa Group.
