Why Cremation is NOT a Green Choice:
3 Vital Reasons to Avoid Cremation (who knew?!)
Most Americans believe they are doing “the right thing” when they elect a cremation for their deathcare. After all, it saves on land use and cemetery space, and many urban cemeteries are filling up. Cremation is cheaper than a conventional funeral/burial, and it tends to “simplify” deathcare when people would rather not look at their death, avoid the grief of funeral homes, and the expense of a memorial service and all the trimmings which can easily add up to $25k or more.
When my mother died of severe dementia about 8 years ago my curiosity was piqued. She had written in to her will that she wanted the least expensive cremation — at that time a low fee of $400 at a Denver crematory. Like good children, we followed through with her wishes, though we held her in a traditional European 3-day candlelit “home funeral” at the small care home where she spent the last years of her life in Boulder, Colorado. She would have been happy to know there were friends from the community who attended and cared.
After I received her box of “ashes” (actually, her pulverized bone fragments, as I discovered upon opening the cardboard lid), I did what many of us do which is to go to a beautiful place in nature where she would have enjoyed having some of her “cremains” scattered. That was at the top of the cloud-covered volcano on Maui which she had not visited in life. Who knew that I had opened a “Pandora’s box,” never dreaming that I would be releasing any remaining molecules of heavy metals and accompanying toxins or debris from a plastic bodybag, into the wind and water over that pristine paradise. Who knew that I would be passing on the very pollutants that caused my mother’s own mercury-induced dementia (from dental fillings) that she suffered with from the early age of 68 to 82.
The indigenous Hawaiian people have an ancient saying that I often remember: “Ho’oponopono”
It translates into english as:
“I’m sorry, please forgive me, I promise to do it right, I love you.”
I wanted to make things right for the earth, to be forgiven, and that includes all the actions, writings, research and taking care of the earth that I have been doing for these past eight years.
Meanwhile, my curiosity was stirred again when I wondered about Mom’s “ashes” and why there were only bone fragments in that box. I began to research cremation, and each “stone” of information led to more information, more questions, more disturbing facts. More stones to turn over. Since then, I have become educated about mercury, some of which I already knew from treating a patient years ago who had severe poisoning from eating fish in South America. I had a gut feeling that I was onto something bigger than I ever imagined.
After two years of research my curiosity reached an all-time high. Rather than further subject my already overwhelmed liver to pollutants in a real crematory I decided to take a “virtual visit” on Youtube. Here you will find the Cremation warehouse experience involves a casket or cardboard box containing the body to be placed in a steel incinerator and heated to temperatures 1400–2400 Fahrenheit (depending on the size and largeness of the body). At the highest temperature, most of the body is vaporized and oxidized as water within about two hours.
However, gases released are then temporarily “held” in a second metal chamber (in the newer oven models), then released to the outside air through an exhaust system. The bones are then swept out of the oven into a pulverizing machine, “The Cremulator,” that produces two large boxes of bone fragments that are packed up and sent to the family or nearest of kin.
Here’s the bottom line, after 8 years of research, with two years of an extensive review of the science:
1) Cremation is a climate change disaster. Each cremation uses about 28 gallons of fuel and releases about 540 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Estimates from the UK say their cremations contribute about 16% of total climate emissions, with a 70% cremation rate similar to our Western states of Oregon, Washington and California. About 1.7 Billion pounds of CO2 are emitted every year in the US alone from about a million cremated bodies.
2) Mercury vapors, plastic body bags, and plastic implants create extremely poisonous vapors that enter the air and eventually the water table. These are invisible and odorless gases. Given the clear science of over 25 years between mercury vapors and Alzheimer’s Disease (now the 3rd leading cause of death in the US), cremation cannot be considered environmentally responsible with the release of mercury pollution into the air we all breathe. Mercury vapors can travel long-distances, and easily bond to water and oxygen molecules. According to science, no amount of mercury is considered safe in any amount or form, with no effective filters for the chimney ovens.
3) Cremation uses a tremendous amount of fossil fuel to heat up the ovens to temperatures of 1400 degrees-2000 degrees or more. At 28 gallons per cremation that adds up to 28 million gallons of fuel annually.
Note: Mercury and plastics pollution is also the problem for “Water Cremation” or Alkaline Hydrolysis, purported by the AH industry as the latest “green” alternative to oven Cremation. Alkaline Hydrolysis does not address the responsible handling of mercury, which is extremely toxic to humans, technicians and the environment. There are no studies done outside the industry or by the EPA to assess the handling of mercury released from remains. Do mercury fillings bound to a jawbone end up in the pulverizer machine to be vaporized and breathed in by people and animals?Are plastics washed down the drain into sewage as toxic particles to end up in the ocean once again?
Additional facts you may wish to know:
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates crematoriums emit 320 pounds of mercury per year, while activists say the real figure could be as high as 6,000 pounds in 2007. A review of a study done by the EPA that estimated emissions figures from dental amalgams have been underestimated.
In 2012, the EPA Crematorium Working Group reported that crematoria are significant sources of mercury, dioxins, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur oxide; volatile acids such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride, both of which form during vaporization of plastics and insulation; compounds such as benzenes, furans and acetone are also emitted and react with HCl and HF under combustion conditions to form polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), both of which cause cancer.
“These and mercury are of special concern because they are susceptible to bio-accumulation.”
The EPA, the World Health Organization, and scientists consider any level, no matter how low, of emissions of mercury to be a threat to human health. Vulnerable populations such as babies, children, women of childbearing age, and the elderly are particularly at risk from exposure to these toxins. Employees who work in these environments, as well as those populations who live near the source are exposed to high levels of these pollutants. Not to mention all animals with a nervous system that are effected by mercury, including our pets, service animals and animal companions.
While typical symptoms and signs, such as tremors, gum bleeding and salivation may quickly disappear after exposure has stopped, chronic neurological symptoms develop over weeks or months. While mercury exposure has the “potential” to cause a variety of health problems especially neurological diseases like MS, ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, the brain and kidneys are especially vulnerable. According to Dr. Anne Summers of the University of Georgia, there are no known safe levels of mercury, and scientists clearly agree that “mercury toxicity can have serious consequences on human health.”
Mercury in dental amalgams has been banned in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. However, the United Nations Environmental Programme records indicate that 680,000 pounds of mercury is discharged into the environment from dental amalgam worldwide, of which 200,000 pounds, nearly 30%, entered the waste stream in 2019.
For an excellent discussion of the link between mercury vapors in the environment and Alzheimer’s Disease (the third largest cause of death in the US), watch the documentary, now free on YouTube or on the website https://Evidence-of-Harm.com by Alzheimer’s researcher Dr Boyd Haley, PhD., former NIH lead scientist. This is a documentary of Dr Haley’s 26-year NIH career linking mercury toxins with Lewy bodies in Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr Haley has also formulated a chelation medication, Emeramide, currently tested in FDA trials to safely pull mercury out of the body. Now over eighty years old, Dr Haley is working with children in South America who have mercury poisoning from eating fish in their seaside villages.
On a more positive note, the CAN (Community Awareness Network) is a group of organized citizens in over 35 U.S. states and Canada that has set up blocks and ordinances against cremation, built a library of research for others to refer to and assists in local initiatives to deconstruct or prevent the further building of crematories. It educates people about the real nature of toxins and what you can do when faced with a crematory intended to be built in town. They believe no more communities should have to absorb another crematory that is inherently unsafe for public health and animals in the environment.
So, what’s the environmentally-responsible solution to cremation? It’s the time-tested ancient practice of now-certified green burial cemeteries which allow for the natural return of our bodies to the earth. The mercury stored in our bodies was once mined from the earth, and the best place for it is to go back to the earth. With over 70 green cemeteries in most states, we have real choices for natural deathcare.
Finally, a visit to the Crematorium will show you that the time you have to say goodbye to your loved one and move through the natural and normal grief process is minimized and tends to be interrupted or delayed. The grief process so essential to our humanity is industrialized and “referred out” once again. The cremation “hour” does not allow for the important time needed to accept a death and the grief process that is made “real” for people with burial. The “industrial” environment of cement walls and stainless steel ovens has little ambiance of emotional safety for the grieving person or family.
Although some families have a memorial prior to cremation there is often the lingering difficulty accepting that a loved one has died. A increasingly-common grief that is complicated from a sudden loss such as heart attack or stroke, traumatic accident or suicide becomes even more difficult when the body is boxed away and cremated before a person can fully accept it and the shock, numbness and other feelings specific to these types of loss. With green burials there is a more relaxed graveside funeral in nature, and grief of any variety is given the reverence it deserves, as a reflection of the love we have for the lost one that lives on in our hearts.
