DETAILED OCCUPATION DATA
39-4011 Embalmers
Occupational Description:
Prepare bodies for interment in conformity with legal requirements.| Percentiles | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geography | Employment | Emp SE* | Mean | Mean SE* | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
| U S | 3,890 | 300 | $24.52/hr | $0.51/hr | $12.76/hr | $17.66/hr | $23.37/hr | $29.73/hr | $37.24/hr |
| *SE = Standard error, a measure of the statistical reliability of the estimate. | |||||||||
Tasks for Embalmers
- Packs body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter.
- Applies cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance.
- Reshapes or reconstructs disfigured or maimed bodies, using materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of paris, and wax.
- Dresses and places body in casket.
- Maintains records, such as itemized list of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed.
- Inserts convex celluloid or cotton between eyeball and eyelid to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelid.
- Washes and dries body, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air drier.
- Joins lips, using needle and thread or wire.
- Presses diaphragm to evacuate air from lungs.
- Makes incision in arm or thigh and drains blood from circulatory system and replaces blood with embalming fluid, using pump.
- Incises stomach and abdominal walls and probes internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
- Attaches trocar to pump-tube, starts pump, and repeats probing to force embalming fluid into organs.
- Closes incisions, using needle and suture.
