Apr 8, 2018 06:10 PM
https://www.wired.com/story/alkaline-hyd...cremation/
EXCERPT: . . . The modern act of embalming, popularized during the American Civil War, is a physically violent one in which blood goes down the drain, untreated, after being pushed out by embalming fluid pumped through the vascular system. Full of dyed-pink carcinogenic formaldehyde and other chemicals, the body is put in the ground, where its decomposition is delayed, but not entirely so. The chemicals seep out as the corpse putrefies, along with any drugs that were present at the time of death. In the US alone, more than 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid are buried every year.
In 2015, the popularity of cremation fractionally outpaced burial in the US for the first time in history—but few ask what it entails. [...] an hour into the process, a crematory operator will open the door and use a rake to hook the skeleton by the ribs and move it around to ensure the whole body is touched by flame. [...] bone dust catches in the bricks of the retort (the chamber in which the deceased is burned); cross-contamination of bodies is inevitable. Instead of chemicals leaking out into the soil, they end up in the clouds.
Alkaline hydrolysis avoids all that. It was conceived in the mid-’90s to solve Albany Medical College’s problem of research rabbit disposal [...] In the years since, a growing number of independent funeral homes have added alkaline hydrolysis to their list of services [...] One obstacle to wider-spread adoption: Big Funeral needs to back it, and according to Fisher, who was a funeral director before working in body donation, industry leaders have been reluctant to offer it for a simple reason: “Money,” he says. “The big corporations—Service Corporation International, Carriage, Stewart Enterprises—have set up billion-dollar models to sell you a casket, give you a ride to the cemetery in that hearse, sell you the cemetery plot, and put up the marker.”
Alkaline hydrolysis doesn’t require any of that. [...] A biochemical reaction is taking place, and the flesh is dissolving off the bones. In the course of about four hours, the strong alkaline base breaks down everything but the skeleton into the original components that built it [...] The body becomes a sterile watery liquid that looks like weak tea. The liquid shoots through a pipe into a holding tank in the opposite corner of the room, where it will cool, reach an acceptable pH, and be released down the drain.
MORE: https://www.wired.com/story/alkaline-hyd...cremation/
EXCERPT: . . . The modern act of embalming, popularized during the American Civil War, is a physically violent one in which blood goes down the drain, untreated, after being pushed out by embalming fluid pumped through the vascular system. Full of dyed-pink carcinogenic formaldehyde and other chemicals, the body is put in the ground, where its decomposition is delayed, but not entirely so. The chemicals seep out as the corpse putrefies, along with any drugs that were present at the time of death. In the US alone, more than 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid are buried every year.
In 2015, the popularity of cremation fractionally outpaced burial in the US for the first time in history—but few ask what it entails. [...] an hour into the process, a crematory operator will open the door and use a rake to hook the skeleton by the ribs and move it around to ensure the whole body is touched by flame. [...] bone dust catches in the bricks of the retort (the chamber in which the deceased is burned); cross-contamination of bodies is inevitable. Instead of chemicals leaking out into the soil, they end up in the clouds.
Alkaline hydrolysis avoids all that. It was conceived in the mid-’90s to solve Albany Medical College’s problem of research rabbit disposal [...] In the years since, a growing number of independent funeral homes have added alkaline hydrolysis to their list of services [...] One obstacle to wider-spread adoption: Big Funeral needs to back it, and according to Fisher, who was a funeral director before working in body donation, industry leaders have been reluctant to offer it for a simple reason: “Money,” he says. “The big corporations—Service Corporation International, Carriage, Stewart Enterprises—have set up billion-dollar models to sell you a casket, give you a ride to the cemetery in that hearse, sell you the cemetery plot, and put up the marker.”
Alkaline hydrolysis doesn’t require any of that. [...] A biochemical reaction is taking place, and the flesh is dissolving off the bones. In the course of about four hours, the strong alkaline base breaks down everything but the skeleton into the original components that built it [...] The body becomes a sterile watery liquid that looks like weak tea. The liquid shoots through a pipe into a holding tank in the opposite corner of the room, where it will cool, reach an acceptable pH, and be released down the drain.
MORE: https://www.wired.com/story/alkaline-hyd...cremation/