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NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
CREMATION
On average, about 34 percent of America's dead are cremated each year. In Lawrence, funeral directors estimate about 40 percent of families choose cremation.
By integrating cremation into traditional memorial services, American funeral homes have made the practice much more commonplace. In 1963, the Catholic Church lifted its ban on cremation, likely making the practice less objectionable for many of the quarter of Americans who identify themselves as Catholic. The modern crematoria, the ovens used to burn bodies, are equipped with digital controls to manage the fires that burn at temperatures close to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for about two hours.
Once the body is reduced to a gravel-like consis
remains are collected and moved to a processor, which grinds the bones into a more powdery substance. The residual matter, known as cremains in the funeral industry, is placed in an urn or a temporary container so family members can scatter the ashes. Urns are buried, placed in an above-ground mausoleum or displayed in the homes of survivors.
CREMATION ODDITIES:
British designer Nadine Jarvis sells pencils made of human ashes. Cremains consist mostly of carbon, and one body can usually produce 240 pencils. The pencils, etched with the deceased's name, are housed in a wooden box. The box contains a sharpener and collects the sharpening fragments, making the box an urn of sorts.
- Portions of cremated ashes can be flown aboard a commercial spacecraft owned by Space Services, Inc. The ashes, held in a small capsule, are released into space. The cost ranges from $12,500 to $59,985, depending on how much of the ashes are shipped into space. The remaining cremains are scattered at sea.
Several companies sell cremation diamonds, created from the ashes of the dead. These jewels can be set into rings or pendants or even made into larger pieces of art. This practice is also available as a way to memorialize lost pets.
Tattoo artists have created a way of infusing ink with the finely ground ashes of the dead. Because living bodies can reject the impurity of the ash fragments, health officials question the safety of the practice.
LINGERING EFFECTS
It was the night shift at Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., that Zach Kastens still can't get over.
The mortuary doesn't pay an hourly wage to the night attendants like some other funeral homes. Instead, two students receive free rent in their own apartment at the funeral home in exchange for being on call to retrieve bodies from homes, nursing homes and hospitals.
Kastens, a senior from Atwood, took the job as a freshman, enticed by the prospect of free rent. He quickly realized that being surrounded by death was more than he could handle.
For Kastens, keeping the families and the deceased at a distance proved to be too difficult. He still thinks and worries about his own death often.
"It brings death to the front of your mind," he said.
"It brings death to the front of your mind," he said. Seeing families being pressured to show love through spending on funerals also turned him off.
Now he works as a DJ for weddings, a job that seems like the polar opposite to the funeral industry, but he sees an eerie parallel to how customers are pressured into spending.
For the dead, the funeral was "this is the last thing you'll ever do for this person," he said. "And in weddings it's 'this is the most important day of your life.'"
FUNERALS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
In the embalming room at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana St., Miller and Foley are covered head to toe in protective gear. They each wear thick, blue rubber gloves, non-absorbent gowns and plastic protective masks.
Bodies often leak. Vomit and bile are prone to purging through the mouth. Without muscles tightly holding everything in place, feces can spill onto the table.
The embalming room, behind a heavy metal door in the basement, looks more like an operating room for the living than a place to care for the dead. Each of the two adjustable tables is lined with a guttering system. They are positioned near cabinets and shelves that store sterile-looking utensils, creams and chemicals.
Foley, with four years under his belt as a licensed funeral director and embalmer, has this process down to a fine art. Miller is still a student, and he's working to get his state license. But first, he
tory apprenticeship.
He's not allowed to
embalm a body him-
must complete a manda-
self, but he assists wherever possible. In three years working at Rumsey-Yost, Miller has watched and participated in this process at least 100 times.
With the corpse washed, the muscles loosened and the hair freshly rinsed with Head and Shoulders shampoo, the two begin the embalming process.
Foley attaches plastic tubes to the incisions on the carotid and jugular. The tubes lead to the embalming machine, which holds several gallons of embalming fluid. The mixture is made of formaldehyde and contains perfumes and dyes. Without blood in the body, the skin will be pale white.
The machine will pump for about 90 minutes, acting almost like a heart for the deceased's circulatory system. One tube pushes the potion into the body, where it streams through every artery, vessel, vein and capillary. The other tube drains the blood, which is dumped into the sewer system like dirty bath water.
After the blood is replaced by preservative, the artery and vein are tied off, and Foley stitches the incisions closed. The wounds will later be masked by makeup and cream, leaving no evidence of the operation they've performed.
Miller then grabs a trocar, a metal tool used to poke a hole near the navel. The trocar is attached to a suction tube, which draws the remaining fluid out of the cavities. It punctures each organ, releasing gas, bile and bodily fluids.
No one wants a solemn funeral service interrupted by the gurgling sounds of settling gas in Grandmas tummy.
Thetooththeninjectsmoreembalming fluid through the puncture site, preserving the body's innards. The puncture wound is sealed, and the body is given time to rest.
Embalming bodies this way didn't become popular until well into the 20th century.
Although embalming made sense to allow for time to transport bodies before the development of refrigeration and high-speed travel, environmentalists and industry watchdogs are now questioning the practicality, the high costs and the environmental effects of the tradition.
Before that, the funeral and burial took place at home or church. Embalming started during the Civil War as a means of preserving and shipping the bodies of fallen Union soldiers back to their Northern homes.
When a lengthy journey of a decomposing corpse ceased to be a problem, undertakers touted embalming as a safeguard for public health. Not many diseases can
But scientists have since discovered that, except in the rarest cases, a dead body poses little risk to the health of the living. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now maintains that embalming has no benefit to public health.
survive in a body steeped in formaldehyde.
But now it's thought that emunning is actually detrimental to public health. In 2009, research from the National Cancer Institute linked embalming fluid's active ingredient, formaldehyde, which is classified as a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, to myeloid leukemia. The study proved what many had suspected for years: Funeral directors who embalm over an extended period of time have an increased risk of contracting cancer.
Funeral directors now pay close attention to the health debate; if only because evidence suggests their work environment might be accelerating their own need for a funeral.
Embalming also poses a problem for environmentalists, who can only guess what long-term effects toxic formaldehyde has on the Earth.
After release of the findings, the National Funeral Directors Association updated its list of Formaldehyde Best Management Practices, which suggests increasing ventilation, limiting exposure to formaldehyde and using a less concentrated mixture of embalming fluid.
"If there was a serious risk with embalming, the government wouldrift allow it," said Pam Scott, executive director of the Kansas Funeral Directors Association.
Still, no federal regulations or industry-wide changes have been implemented since the research was published.
The Environmental Protection Agency has yet to take a stance on embalming, but it does note that formaldehyde can cause cancer "within the respiratory or GI tract after inhalation or oral exposure."
It's estimated that Americans annually bury more than 827,000 gallons of embalming fluid — enough to overflow an Olympic size swimming pool — across America's 22,500 cemeteries, along with nearly 93,000 tons of steel, copper and bronze and 30 million board feet of hardwoods from caskets.
LIVING THE GREEN LIFE AND DEATH
The government's inaction on the matter has caused environmental activists to create their own organization to promote more environmentally friendly ways of disposing
The council has enlisted the help of 300 funeral homes across the nation to begin offering green burials that do not use embalming or other traditional but wasteful materials, such as metal caskets and granite and marble headstones.
of the dead, said Joe Sebee, executive director of the nonprofit Green Burial Council.
"It's really the energy that goes into all this that is most worrisome." Sefhe said.
The council has created criteria for evaluating whether a cemetery is green and how green it is.
Lawrence is home to Kansas' only green cemetery. It's actually a smaller, wooded section of the city-operated Oak Hill Cemetery in East Lawrence near 15th and Elmwood streets. At Oak Hill, regular burials and green burials cost the same. Each plot costs $700 in addition to a $640 to $1,100 fee for digging and covering the grave. Embalmed bodies and caskets that use metal or glues can't be buried in the green section.
"We think green burial is a traditional burial," Sehee said. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust is a concept that's been with us a lot longer."
Despite the amount of national press coverage, green burials in Lawrence haven't been that popular. Only three individuals have chosen to have a green burial here since it became an option in January 2009. That year, 225 bodies were buried in Lawrence's three cemeteries.
Environmentalists also want to change the types of embalming fluids used.
Some formaldehyde-free embalming fluids have been introduced to the market, but they're not widely used. Even crematoria, the ovens used to burn the human body into a gravel-like consistency of bones and ashes known as cremains, are being eyed for more energy-efficient upgrades.
Critics decry the release of greenhouse gases and mercury from dental work that pours out of the ovens, which burn at temperatures close to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Some have suggested that morticians start removing metal dental work from the deceased before cremation.
Though the release of carbon dioxide from crematoria isn't easy on the environment, experts say less overall energy is expended in cremation than in traditional burial. Nonetheless, the Green Burial Council is working to promote more energy-efficient crematoria and is looking at ways to install filters on existing crematoria.
THE MEMORY PICTURE
The ancient Egyptians believed
the dead were capable of taking their bodies and possessions with them into the afterlife, making preservation of the earthly body a necessity. Thousands of years later, that idea is all but extinct in mainstream society. But funeral directors have still found a way to sell the value of embalming
They maintain that viewing the restored, preserved body helps mourners cope with the loss.
"I wonder why it's not popular in other places like it is here," said Patty Dardis, a veteran funeral director at Rumsey-Yost.
Dardis said she found that when she lost loved ones, viewing the body provided closure for her, just as it does for other survivors.
"Seeing is believing," she said.
That's not to say that embalming is required to view the body.
Most states do not require embalming except in special circumstances. In some states, including Kansas, embalming is required for interstate shipping of the body. Some funeral homes may require embalming for open-casket funerals or public viewings. But most will still allow the family a private viewing of the body even if it's not embalmed.
Through restorative art, as it's called within the industry, nearly all physical imperfections of the live human body can be erased.
Popularized in industry trade publications, the concept of the "memory picture" is how morticians continue to sell the art of temporary preservation. The embalmer is not only looking to preserve the body, but is also trying to create a positive last image for loved ones.
No longer does Grandma look frail from months of illness. The woman who was mutilated in an automobile accident suddenly looks as if she avoided any injury at all. Even a decapitated cadaver can be altered to look whole again.
This restoration, funeral directors argue, provides a positive psychological effect for grievers that can't be realized in immediate burial, direct cremation or green burial.
This "memory picture" concept benefits the funeral industry financially. Not only do undertakers charge a fee — in Lawrence it ranges from $550 to $675 just for the embalming — but they make even more money on the accompanying casket and service.
"Number one, once they pretty up the body, they can probably sell you a more expensive casket. So you've got to follow the dollar here," said Lisa Carlson, an outspoken critic of the funeral industry and author of the books "Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love" and "I Died Laughing: Funeral Education with a Light Touch."
The hearse is a trademark of American dearth rituals. This Cadillac coach, owned by Penwell-Gabel Midtown Chapel in Topeka, is part of a fleet of elaborate vehicles
THE COST OF DEATH
The following prices were obtained from the general price lists of the three Lawrence funeral homes, which are required by law to present them when requested. All prices are subject to change.*
This non-declinable fee covers the funeral home's overhead, staffing and filing of paperwork. Some services, such as direct cremation, immediate burial and forwarding or receiving of remains, already include this fee. But for most services, this fee is added on to the cost of selected arrangements and merchandise.
Basic services fee
$1,575-$4,190
$550-$675
Embalming
Embalming is rarely required by law, but some funeral homes may
require it for open-casket funerals or viewings.
$2,989-$3,315
Immediate burial
This price does not include any type of memorial services and may or may not include a cardboard or fiberboard casket.
$1,695-$3,077
Direct cremation
This price does not include any type of memorial services and may or may not include a cardboard or
$2,635-$4,425
Cremation with traditional funeral service
fiberboard casket.
S2,635-$5,985 Traditional funeral service and burial
This price usually includes a
visitation and a funeral service at the funeral home's chapel or a church, followed by grave-side interment. These packages usually include embalming and the basic service fee, but the casket, outer burial container and grave marker are usually not included.
The selection of the casket offers the greatest range in price and greatest profit potential for funeral homes. The price of one model of casket can have several thousand
$585-$13,995
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