Obese corpses are a safety hazard in mortuaries and pathologists have called for new "heavy duty" autopsy facilities to cope with the growing obesity epidemic.

Obese corpses are difficult to move and too heavy for standard trolleys and lifting hoists to handle.

"These bodies are difficult to lift, move and store, and present major logistical problems for pathologists and technicians attempting to perform standard examinations," Professor Roger Byard, a pathologist at the University of Adelaide, wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia .

He said mortuary equipment was not designed to take such extreme weights and the faster putrefaction and "skin slippage" of larger bodies makes them more difficult to handle.

Purpose-built mortuaries with "larger storage and dissection rooms, and more robust equipment" would soon be required.

"Failure to provide these might compromise the post-mortem evaluation of markedly obese individuals, in addition to potentially jeopardising the health of mortuary staff," Professor Byard wrote.

The SA Health Department is planning facilities and buying equipment with larger patients in mind, a spokeswoman said. "Obesity is having an impact on health professionals within the public health system - including those who work in mortuaries," she said.

"Within the mortuary setting, the upgrading of equipment and purchasing of new equipment will take into account the need to accommodate larger and obese corpses, and the impact that has on staff."

Bigger crematorium furnaces, grave plots, heavy-duty ambulances, wheelchairs and hospital beds are also on the agenda.

Professor Ian Caterson, head of the Institute for Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise at the University of Sydney, said it was a sad reflection of where Australia was heading.

"The reality is we need to be thinking about how to incorporate larger people in our planning of public buildings," he said.

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