globalbriefs
Going Out Green New Mortuary Practices Reduce Mercury Pollution
Resomation, Ltd., in Glasgow, Scotland, has invented a new alka- line hydrolysis unit as a green alternative to cremation. Founder Sandy Sullivan plans to install the first one in America at the Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mercury from dental fillings vaporized in crematoria has been blamed for up
to 16 percent of British airborne mercury emissions, and many facilities there are fitting costly mercury filtration systems to meet reduced emission targets. The device dissolves the body in heated, pressurized, alkaline water. Makers claim the process produces one-third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses one-seventh of the energy and allows for complete separation of mercury-laden dental amalgam for safe disposal. Sullivan, a biochemist, says tests have proven the effluent is sterile, contains
no DNA and poses no environmental risk. He believes it can rival cremation for cost. The technology has been legalized in seven states to date. Another green alternative, Promession, is under development by Swed-
ish Biologist Susanne Wiigh-Masak. It involves a fully automated machine that removes the body from the coffin and freezes it with liquid nitrogen. Vibrating breaks the corpse into fragments, which are then dried, refined and filtered to remove dental amalgam and other metals. The remains are then automatically poured into a biodegradable container for shallow burial. Wiigh-Masak likens the process to composting, in which organic materials
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convert to soil within weeks. She says that 60 countries around the world have expressed interest in the technology.
Source: BBC News
Fishy Business Something’s Spawning Gender-Bent Fish
A French study examining wild gudgeon fish that live directly downstream from a pharmaceutical drug manufacturing plant found that up to 80 percent of them exhibited both male and female traits in their sex organs. Such sex abnormalities indicate endocrine disruption that can foreshadow larger effects on fish popula- tions because of reductions in breeding abilities. Upstream of the plant, only 5 percent of such intersex fish were detected. Excreted pharmaceuticals can enter the environment from sewage treatment plants or the flushing of unwanted or old drugs down the toilet. They also can directly enter waterways via discharge into rivers and streams by drug manufactur- ing plants. The study is the first to link discharge from a drug plant, rather than a sewage plant, with physical and chemical changes in fish. The inquiry was initiated after fishermen along the Dore
River, in France, noticed swollen bellies and abnormal in- nards in the wild gudgeon fish. Study results were published in the journal Environmental International. More research is needed to identify the types and levels of specific drugs in the water at each site.
Source:
EnvironmentalHealthNews.com www.na-sd.com
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