It’s Monday morning again and as usual we have been busy seeing what happened in the death care industry news over the weekend.  Today we have four articles that we think are very interesting ranging from stolen human remains to a deadline coming up for a California Senate vote on legalizing alkaline hydrolysis to what is going to happen if Hurricane Irma dislodges caskets in low lying areas of Florida — and more.

• The Senate in the State of California has until September 15 to introduce  legislation to make it legal to use the process of alkaline hydrolysis as legal form of final disposition in the state.  The State House passed this legislation 71-3 and the director of UCLA’s donated body program, where the process has been tested for the state, states “the science says this technology is safe and has environmental benefits.”  Read more about this issue here.

• In a bizarre case, police arrested a suspect in the theft of the urns of 18 people that took place over a year ago at the Union Cemetery in Stratford, Connecticut.    The case went unsolved since that time but now a suspect has been arrested and the theft of those urns may be tied to a the suspect’s religious practices.  You can read more about it here.

• An article in by Reuters and published by U.S. News questions what will happen after Hurricane Irma slams into the State of Florida and caskets have been interred in high water table areas.  Recently, Hurricane Harvey in Texas has caused some caskets to rise out of their vaults and float away.  The article does state that the United States National Disaster Medical Services System helps in these instances.

• Finally, an article our of the Guardian in Great Britain relates that the death care industry in that country is undergoing a period of expansion that has not been experienced for decades.  In reading the article it is a classic case of consumers not getting what they want from the current practitioners.  Evidently, many crematories are ran by government authorities.  Of late, as cremations have risen in popularity, the price has went up and the service has diminished.  For profit companies are now expanding greatly and hope to take market share via lower prices and better services.

Funeral Director Daily take:  All of these are interesting articles that you should look at just to stay in tune with what is, or can, happen in the industry.  It will be interesting to see what becomes of alkaline hydrolysis –14 states and Canada now approve of the process.  I’m guessing that over time – more will — however, it will be interesting to see what percentage of market share it will take from cremation.

And, it does not surprise me that public authorities – when they have a good thing going — want to make it provide even more funds for the government and expect the clients to just sit tight and pay for that.  I’m a free enterprise guy — and if the private sector can do something better – and less expensive — they will be rewarded in the end for their efforts.  While it is happening in Great Britain — it’s only the American way!!![wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]