Giant coffins that cater for ever-growing numbers of obese Americans

By Graham Smith for MailOnline 13:02 09 Jan 2012, updated 14:10 09 Jan 2012

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It's a growing problem, but the success of a firm that specialises in giant coffins has brought America's obesity epidemic into sharp focus.

With over 30 per cent of Americans officially classified as obese, Indiana-based Goliath Caskets has found its niche product steadily become more in demand.

Its largest casket is a staggering 4ft-wide and 8ft-long and can hold a person weighing up to 72 stone.

Founded in 1985, Goliath Caskets has seen demand for its largest casket rocket from an average of one per year to more than a dozen.

The East Lynn firm also sells more than 200 slightly smaller oversized coffins each year.

Owner Keith Davis, 62, said: 'Periodically, but very rarely, a funeral home would call the company for a big casket. During the 1980s, very little concern was given to the manufacture of oversize caskets.

'The main reason was because there was little interest.'

Mr Davis added: 'Goliath Caskets only builds oversize caskets, we do not build standard caskets.

'Our smallest casket is 2ft 4in wide and is suitable for people who weighed up to 25 stone. Our 2ft 7in and 2ft 9in-wide caskets address the need of people of 25 to 40 stone. And our 3ft to 4ft 3in-wide coffins provide coverage to everyone from 40 to 72 stone.'

But at a cost of £2,500 per coffin, bowing out doesn't come cheap for the obese.

Additional problems, and expense, can arise as many hearses are not capable of carrying such heavy caskets, some crematoriums do not have doors large enough to accommodate them, and burial plots need to be bigger.

Each coffin is designed to cater for the special needs of the obese.

Mr Davis said: 'Our coffins have a fully articulated bed, a re-enforced bottom and are 1ft 4in-high to accommodate the extra girth of an obese person.'

If current trends continue, about half of men and women in the U.S. will be obese by 2030.

Some 32 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women are now obese in the U.S., a study by New York's Columbia University said in August.

Designers in all industries are increasingly having to return to the drawing board to find innovative ways to accommodate our increasing girth.

Typical family cars, for instance, are now more than a foot wider than they were in the 1950s, and almost double the weight, as major manufacturers struggle to find room for chunkier thighs, larger bottoms and fatter fingers.

And airlines are starting to force fat passengers on planes to buy a second seat.

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