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Home / Washington Business - Spring 2003 / Member Helper: AWB Helps Funeral Director Stop DOE Dead in Tracks |
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Member Helper: AWB Helps Funeral Director Stop DOE Dead in Tracks |
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Written On: Spring 2003 |
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Imagine a funeral director telling a grieving family: “I’m sorry, we can’t cremate Uncle John as you wish, he has dental fillings which may contain mercury. We are not licensed to remove teeth or fillings, so you’ll have to call your dentist to have him come to the mortuary.”
Just what the family needs to hear at a very emotional time.
That is what they would hear if the Department of Ecology (DOE) got its way last August. DOE’s Central Regional Air Quality Section told the Columbia River Crematory in White Salmon that in order to have an operating permit it could no longer accept bodies with mercury-based amalgam. Those fillings are the most widely used dental restorative material and despite the fact that most mercury is successfully captured and recycled by dentists using special amalgam traps and filters, the DOE inspectors wanted more.
“Government tends to over-regulate,” Brad Carlson, owner of Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Vancouver and the AWB Executive Committee member who brought the issue to our attention. AWB Vice President Gary Chandler and environmental specialist Grant Nelson immediately jumped into the fray with the Washington State Funeral Directors Association (WSFDA) and got DOE to listen to our concerns and back off.
DOE Rule Didn’t Make Sense
“What DOE was requiring didn’t make sense,” Chandler said. “There would have been a lot of unneeded pain, cost and anguish for grieving families and a whole new layer of unnecessary government paperwork for a small business.”
Nelson reviewed a copy of the proposed permit, which required Garderner’s Funeral Home, owner of the Columbia River Crematory, to:
1. Determine if bodies contained mercury-based dental amalgams and keep detailed records on the number and type of fillings;
2. Conduct mercury emission tests on the stacks and submit them to DOE. Failure to do so meant the crematory would shut down in January 2004;
3. Agree to future emission limits and other performance testing by DOE; and,
4. Limit the number of cremations.
Why would DOE target a rural funeral director? Why along the Columbia River? Gardeners was the test case. If the new permit standards would stick on a small business in White Salmon, it would set the precedent for all funeral directors in our state. What was lost on DOE is that families seeking cremation would simply take their loved one across the river to an Oregon funeral director and save the cost and hassle.
Since 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its state counterparts initiated efforts to remove trace amounts of mercury from air and water pollutants. They continue to focus on coal-fired electric plants and medical waste incinerators—and crematoriums are similar to medical waste incinerators.
The fear is when mercury, a naturally occurring element, is incinerated at high temperature and released, it could settle in water. It then could accumulate in fish and when people eat fish, they have a remote chance it will mass in quantities high enough to affect the central nervous system, kidneys and liver and reduce our ability to feel, see, hear, taste or move.
AWB Concerned About Mercury
AWB shares concerns how mercury could build up in the food chain. Nelson is an active member of DOE’s Mercury Advisory Council. But the Department jumped the gun on regulating funeral directors.
AWB also convinced legislators to exclude funeral directors from its mercury ban legislation this year—legislation we oppose. “If AWB did not weigh in on the Columbia River Crematory permitting issue, they would be in the bill,” Nelson added.
“AWB helped a small business stay in business,” Carlson concluded. “It is an example of how AWB helps its members every day.”
An advantage of AWB membership is the expert help members receive when they call the Association. Tell your suppliers, customers and business associates about the “AWB Advantage” and encourage them to join. An AWB membership will save employers time, money and, in the case of the Columbia River Crematory, one giant pain in the neck.
Contact: Jim Durland at 1-800-521-9325 or JimD@awb.org.
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