- News
- Health
Westminster Public Mortuary staff found their remains had been saturated in high concentrations of formalin
Ellie CrabbeWednesday 03 December 2025 14:42 GMTComments
open image in galleryAn investigation team inspects the wreckage of Air India flight 171 a day after it crashed in a residential area near the airport, in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health
Get our free Health Check email
Get our free Health Check email
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Mortuary workers face a potential risk of death from hazardous embalming chemicals, a coroner has warned, after "dangerously high" formalin levels were recorded at a facility that handled victims of an Air India crash.
Senior coroner Fiona Wilcox has written to the Health Secretary and other authorities, urging immediate action to prevent future fatalities.
The warning follows the repatriation of bodies from the tragic incident, where a London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after departing Ahmedabad Airport on June 12. All lives on board were lost, with the sole survivor identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in terms of the number of British fatalities.
Inquests for those Britons have not yet taken place.
A number of the victims’ bodies were taken to Westminster Public Mortuary, where staff found their remains had been wrapped and saturated in high concentrations of the chemical formalin as a preservative before being placed in lined coffins.
Ms Wilcox, a coroner for Inner West London, said that on opening the coffins, staff discovered there was a significant hazard from the formalin.
Dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and cyanide were also recorded in the mortuary.
open image in galleryThe sole survivor of the Air India crash, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, in Oadby, near Leicester (Jacob King/PA) (PA Wire)The news comes as several former NHS and laboratory workers who have spoken to The Independent as part of a separate probe into concerns that staff are being exposed to unacceptably high levels of formaldehyde, which is putting their health at risk.
Staff at the mortuary in Regency Place, central London, used breathing apparatus following advice from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear experts, but the coroner raised concerns about how mortuary users were “surprised by the nature of the danger from the formalin”.
Ms Wilcox wrote in a Prevention of Future Deaths report: “It is apparently not usual for environmental monitoring to be routinely available in either public or hospital mortuaries.”
Formalin contains formaldehyde, a chemical that can be toxic to humans and has been classified as cancer-causing by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
No-one who was at the mortuary fell ill, but Ms Wilcox said she is concerned about the “under appreciation” across mortuaries of the dangers formalin poses to health.
The coroner said mortuaries routinely receive bodies preserved in formalin but the chemical is not monitored regularly, meaning safety equipment might not be available when it is needed.
Ms Wilcox said this could expose mortuary users to health risks, including risk of death.
More about
DeathriskvictimsmortuaryHealth SecretaryJoin our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments