Over the past couple of days I’ve noticed a couple articles on rules and regulations in the Death Care industry.  These are not generally municipal or national rules but some rules that are now in effect in different places for different reasons.  I guess all that I have cited here make some sense to those that have established them.  Others may disagree on the rules.

• Balloon Ban in Canberra, Australia — This rule that you can read about here is meant to keep rubber out of the atmosphere.  It bans the sale of more than 20 balloons at one time to a customer.  According to the article the law has not been enforced but environmentalists are stepping up their efforts to enforce it.  It affects funeral service in that, for many death care celebrations, balloon releases are a big part of the symbolism of the deceased spirit moving on.  A funeral director in Canberra says she was unaware of the rule until she tried to buy balloons recently for a service.

• Pokemon Go banned from Indiana Cemetery – Pokemon Go and other electronic gamers have been banned from playing their games in the historic Maplewood Cemetery in Crown Point.  You can read the article here and get some understanding why cemetery officials have taken this unusual step.  According to cemetery officials as mourners and family members are visiting grave sites of loved ones they can be overrun by gamers.  Of interest to me was that I thought Pokemon Go was a craze in 2016 but even last year, the article reports, that Pokemon Go had a profit of over $800 million – up 35% over 2017.

• New Australia Crematory seeks Regulatory Approval – This is more common in our industry and probably more serious to the death care industry than the other two rules I quoted.  This article that you can read here follows the idea of a new crematory in Australia.  A proposed development, in what is called an underserved area, of $3.2 million which would include a funeral chapel and crematory is under review.  According to the article, the review which will take public input until February 12, will address concerns of environmental effects, assessments for noise and emissions and review the potential impact on neighboring properties.

In our opinion, even though crematories are getting better and better all the time with noise, environmental impact and the like, we believe that those in the industry that wish to locate them in current funeral homes or residential neighborhoods will continue to face uphill battles with residents.  Most of the issue is fear of the unknown by the residents, but these conflicts have the potential to pit funeral home owners against their clients and cause damage to the goodwill and business success of the funeral home.  We believe it is becoming apparent that existing funeral homes need to have their homework done when presenting a crematory – or alkaline hydrolysis – plan for construction.

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