David Mowell at
Fayetteville City Council

The Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home of Fayetteville, Georgia, has been granted a Special Exception from the Fayettevill City council to allow for a crematory  on the site of their existing  Fayettville funeral home.  According to an article in the Fayette County News, a Special Exception was needed because under current zoning laws a crematory could only be located in an industrial zoned area.

David Mowell successfully argued that there was just more dignity to having the crematory attached to an existing funeral home rather than have families drive to an industrial area to observe a final farewell.  The community’s Director of Development also spoke in favor after doing what he described as “extensive” research of possible pollutants and visiting with other municipalities that already had operating crematories.

There was opposition from neighborhood residents including a concern of potential Mercury contamination from dental implants and amalgamated fillings.  In an interesting twist to that argument, the city approved the crematory with some restrictions, including one that requires soil testing every six months to ensure against an elevated Mercury level.

According to Mowell, his firm handles about 600 cases per year of which 40% are cremations.  He also testified that he expects cremations to grow.

Funeral Director Daily take:  We built a new funeral home and crematory in 2005 and I expected some concerns such as are mentioned in this article.  We got none.  We also had no EPA requirements at that time.  Our retort company assured us that there would be no upward levels of Mercury from the operation.  To our knowledge, that has been correct.

I actually had a dental appointment yesterday and asked my dentist if they continue to use amalgamated fillings in teeth — the amalgamated material contains Mercury.  He told me they do and that it has proved to be a healthy material when intact but there are still concerns when the Mercury gets released to the environment.  I have also seen a 40 year study of a crematory in England which shows, even without the most modern equipment, no soil or water near the crematory in question has shown elevated Mercury levels.

In light of those results, I find it troubling that a funeral home must continue to test.  My guess is that they will always pass the test and if they don’t, then we have to do something about the Mercury being released during the cremation process.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]