Body Decomposition Without Embalming: How Long Does It Take?

By Author: Biocleaning Solutions
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Crime scene cleaning involves several health hazards and challenges. The job entails not only removing blood spots, but also cleaning decomposed bodies. The latter takes the risk of biohazard exposure to another level. Crime scene cleanup Bell CA professionals have experience and proficiency in all types of cleaning at crime sites.In this article, we will cover the process and duration of dead body decomposition.

The thought of death and afterlife is often considered morbid. However, we often keep wondering about what happens after death. While we keep guessing and being argumentative about afterlife, body decomposition is a natural process that happens to dead bodies of all animals.

Body decomposition refers to the post-mortem decay of muscles and tissues. Though the process starts immediately after death, embalming delays the progression.

What is Embalming?

Embalming is mainly used in Canada and America. It is a process of temporary preservation of body so that it does not decay. It is usually done ...
... if relatives live elsewhere and will take hours or a couple of days to attend funerals. The process of embalming significantly affects the time span of body preservation.

Embalming has no public health benefits and it is done only for cosmetic purposes. In some places, embalming is prohibited if the death happens due to a contagious disease.

Decomposition without Embalming

There is no uniform time duration if it comes to decomposition. The procedure depends on several factors such as, the weight of the dead body, the cause of death, and other environmental factors. For example, if a body is exposed to wildlife, warm environments or is left under water, decomposition will happen at a faster rate.

Forensic scientists invented body farms to study the decomposition rates of human bodies under different conditions. Below, we have given a rough idea of decomposition process when a body is not in coffin, the climate is natural and the remains are normal.

• 3 hours postmortem: Rigor mortis sets in.
• 24-72 hours postmortem: Decomposition of internal organs due to cell death, rigor mortis subsides and body starts emitting strong odor
• 3-5 days postmortem: Organ decomposition continues, the skin starts looking greenish, leakage of body fluids through orifices
• 8-10 days postmortem: The body turns red due to blood decomposition and gas accumulation
• 2+ weeks postmortem: Nails and teeth start falling out
• 1+ month postmortem: Liquefying of the corpse into a dark sludge

A Biohazard Cleanup Bell expert says skeletonization is the final stage of decomposition. This last process takes a long time, from 1 month to several years, and the time duration depends on the environmental factors. Surprisingly, a skeleton also decomposes and it takes another 20 years, provided no animals move or destroy the bones. However, skeletons can be preserved in neutral soil or sand for hundreds of years.