A novel body bag proposed by a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be a lifesaver for people who have to handle victims of natural disasters, wars or other events that claim multiple lives. While the basic body bag has changed very little since its inception, Arpad Vass of the lab's Biosciences Division is developing one that is leakproof, transparent and offers many other improvements. This body bag would safely contain the body until identification can be made while protecting people who have to handle the dead. The bag would contain titanium dioxide and, using 300- to 400-nanometer wavelength light, could be decontaminated in place. The bag would also contain a port from which a vacuum could be drawn to significantly slow down the decomposition process. Vass also noted that this advanced body bag would be useful for preserving evidence in homicides.
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