permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

Here's the latest trend in the mortuary arts: alkaline hydrolysis.

New idea in mortuary science: Dissolving bodies with lye

 By NORMA LOVE – May 8, 2008 CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Since they first walked 
the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option 
is 
generating interest — dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, 
syrupy residue down the drain. 

The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed in this country 
16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300-degree heat and 
60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big 
stainless-steel 
cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers.

No funeral homes in the U.S. — or anywhere else in the world, as far as the 
equipment manufacturer knows — offer it. In fact, only two U.S. medical 
centers 
use it on human bodies, and only on cadavers donated for research.

But because of its environmental advantages, some in the funeral industry say 
it could someday rival burial and cremation. 

"It's not often that a truly game-changing technology comes along in the 
funeral service," the newsletter Funeral Service Insider said in September. 
But 
"we might have gotten a hold of one.

"Getting the public to accept a process that strikes some as ghastly may be 
the biggest challenge. Psychopaths and dictators have used acid or lye to 
torture or erase their victims, and legislation to make alkaline hydrolysis 
available to the public in New York state was branded "Hannibal Lecter's 
bill" in a 
play on the sponsor's name — Sen. Kemp Hannon — and the movie character's 
sadism.

Alkaline hydrolysis is legal in Minnesota and in New Hampshire, where a 
Manchester funeral director is pushing to offer it. But he has yet to line up 
the 
necessary regulatory approvals, and some New Hampshire lawmakers want to 
repeal 
the little-noticed 2006 state law legalizing it.

"We believe this process, which enables a portion of human remains to be 
flushed down a drain, to be undignified," said Patrick McGee, a spokesman for 
the 
Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

State Rep. Barbara French said she, for one, might choose alkaline 
hydrolysis. 

"I'm getting near that age and thought about cremation, but this is equally 
as good and less of an environmental problem," the 81-year-old lawmaker said. 
"It doesn't bother me any more than being burned up. Cremation, you're burned 
up. I've thought about it, but I'm dead.

"In addition to the liquid, the process leaves a dry bone residue similar in 
appearance and volume to cremated remains. It could be returned to the family 
in an urn or buried in a cemetery.

The coffee-colored liquid has the consistency of motor oil and a strong 
ammonia smell. But proponents say it is sterile and can, in most cases, be 
safely 
poured down the drain, provided the operation has the necessary permits.

Alkaline hydrolysis doesn't take up as much space in cemeteries as burial. 
And the process could ease concerns about crematorium emissions, including 
carbon dioxide as well as mercury from silver dental fillings.

The University of Florida in Gainesville and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, 
Minn., have used alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of cadavers since the 
mid-1990s 
and 2005, respectively.

Brad Crain, president of BioSafe Engineering, the Brownsburg, Ind., company 
that makes the steel cylinders, estimated 40 to 50 other facilities use them 
on 
human medical waste, animal carcasses or both. The users include veterinary 
schools, universities, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. government.

Liquid waste from cadavers goes down the drain at the both the Mayo Clinic 
and the University of Florida, as does the liquid residue from human tissue 
and 
animal carcasses at alkaline hydrolysis sites elsewhere.

Manchester funeral director Chad Corbin wants to operate a $300,000 cylinder 
in New Hampshire. He said that an alkaline hydrolysis operation is more 
expensive to set up than a crematorium but that he would charge customers 
about as 
much as he would for cremation. 

George Carlson, an industrial-waste manager for the New Hampshire Department 
of Environmental Services, said things the public might find more troubling 
routinely flow into sewage treatment plants in the U.S. all the time. That 
includes blood and spillover embalming fluid from funeral homes.

The department issued a permit to Corbin last year, but he let the deal on 
the property fall through because of delays in getting the other necessary 
permits. Now he must go through the process all over again, and there is 
gathering 
resistance. But he said he is undeterred.

"I don't not know how long it will take," he said recently, "but eventually 
it will happen." 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ifodxwqgqRNgn74m2nZOLId0xCOwD90HKMVO0

Now you should be able to not just recycle your loved ones, but refine them 
to the point where you can put them in your gas tank.

Michael