Senior coroner Fiona Wilcox wrote to the Health Secretary and other authorities urging immediate action after workers at Westminster Public Mortuary faced a “risk of death”.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a building shortly after departing Ahmedabad Airport in India on June 12.
Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed.
Inquests are yet to take place but a coroner has issued a Prevent Future Death report warning that action must be taken to prevent casualties.
Ms Wilcox said that on opening the coffins, staff discovered a significant hazard from the high concentration of the preservative formalin.
She wrote: “Levels of formalin were found to be dangerously high, and carbon monoxide and cyanide were also detected in the mortuary at dangerous levels following open of the coffins and unwrapping of the bodies of the deceased persons who had been repatriated.”
Ms Wilcox warned that there is an under appreciation across mortuaries of the dangers posed by formalin to the health of all mortuary users and that formalin is not routinely monitored in mortuaries.
