What’s one to do? | Funeral Director Daily

Recently a lawsuit was filed in New Jersey contending a New Jersey township used discrimination in deciding against a Jewish group that planned to establish a Jewish cemetery in the community.  You can read in this article from NJ.com that the lawsuit complaint alleges “Howell Township violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law that protects religious institutions from discriminatory zoning practices”.

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Again, according to the linked article, the lawsuit claims that the township board’s “decision was based on unfounded fears of contamination from natural decomposition”.  It is pointed out in the article that the lawsuit also alleges “Expert testimony presented to the zoning board indicated minimal risk (of this contamination)”.

The article also states “The application included plans for over 5,400 plots, circulation aisles, parking areas, and stormwater management systems. . . . .The cemetery would adhere to Jewish burial practices, including natural burials without embalming fluid, vaults, or other chemical preservation methods.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’m not taking sides on the issue here, but it is interesting to me that the denial seems, at least according to this article,  on the fact that the fears are from “natural decomposition”.   Most people in the “natural cemetery or burial” movement believe, as is written in this 2023 article from the Smithsonian Institute’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, “a corpse is a natural organism that, left untreated, will be reclaimed by nature and benefit the surrounding ecosystem, explained the BBC in an article on what happens after we die. “Every species that visits a cadaver has a unique repertoire of gut microbes… [and] all these microbes mingle and mix within the cadaveric ecosystem” and eventually produce rich, organic soil.”

On the other hand, there seems to be some type of belief by many that non-natural or chemically induced retardation of decomposition is bad for the environment because of the chemicals that are used in that process.  For instance, in that same 2023 article from The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage the following is said about the burial of embalmed bodies, “By obstructing the body’s decomposition, we harm the earth. For instance, each year, the process of embalming dumps 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, into American soil. This toxic runoff can leach into water supplies and create environmental and health problems for plants and animals, including humans.”

I’m certainly no expert on the environmental impacts of the natural burial vs. chemically preserved burial debate.  However, I did come across this recent study on “The Impact of Environmental Health from Cemetery Waste in Middle Tennessee”.  funded by the Austin Peay State University Office of Student Research and Innovation under the 2023 Student Research Grant apparently from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the abstract of the study , “The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of As (Arsenic) and formaldehyde in cemetery plots of different ages.”

Listed among the conclusions of the study were the following statements, “The study showed that regardless of the changes in embalming practices, there is a low likelihood of risk for transmission of formaldehyde and As (Arsenic) to humans from cemetery plots and to groundwater from cemeteries. . . . . The study identifies that there may be no need for caution with regard to potential contamination of waterways near cemeteries and therefore no concern regarding potential human consumption.”

My thought. . . . .if cemeteries are denied because some believe that embalming contaminates the ground and if cemeteries are denied because some believe un-embalmed bodies will contaminate the ground, what is a group that believes in earth burial to do if they want to establish a cemetery?

Related information — The Myles Standish Burial Ground.  America’s oldest cemetery as presented by Wikipedia.  This Massachusetts cemetery is where many of the Pilgrims who arrived with the Mayflower in 1620 are buried.  At one time abandoned, the cemetery has now been reclaimed and it has continued to be kept up.  Its earliest burial is recorded in 1638.

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