Why calcium carbonate is used for disposing of dead bodies?
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Quicklime is a chemical compound known as calcium oxide (CaO), and is made through the thermal decomposition of limestone or other materials containing calcium carbonate in a lime kiln. The material is heated at high temperatures, and the remains are quicklime. Quicklime is not a stable material, and will react with CO2 from the air causing it to convert into heat energy. Due to this reaction, it is used as a source of heat and light. Due to lime being an akaline product, contact with skin can cause reactions that range from mild irritation to full scale burning. It was commonly used to create spectacular theatrical bursts of light prior to the invention of electricity, and when used this way was known as limelight. Quicklime does have uses for burials. In the Red Cross Emergency Relief Items Catalogue, quicklime and lime are listed as a tool for aiding in proper disposal of human remains that cannot be afforded a deep burial. However, the goal of the product is not to destroy the body but rather to prevent putrefaction that create odor, and attracts flies and animals. Quicklime was often used over plague or cholera burials to prevent the spread of disease, thought during this period to be transferred through noxious bad air known as miasma (a morbid term for another day). Again, in practical usage quicklime is being used not to destroy but to prevent disease from spreading.
Lime is one of the major finds in many forensics cases dealing with clandestine burials due to this popular notion of its ability to remove the identity of the deceased and destroy the remains. A new study by Schotsmans et al. (2012) used pig corpses to test different types of lime to see how it changed the remains. The pigs were put into graves, covered with different types and amounts of lime, buried, and were left for six months. Two pigs were buried with lime as the control group. The pigs buried without lime were mostly skeletonized and highly decayed, the two pigs buried with hydrated lime were very well preserved and had little decay, and the two pigs buried with quicklime were fairly preserved with some decay within the body. In general, they discovered that the lime was highly effective in preventing decay and protecting the body, rather than destroying
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