Cremation
Cremation is the practice of disposing of a corpse by burning. This often takes place in a crematorium or crematory. Cremation and burial are the main ways of final disposition of the dead.
Cremation process
Cremation furnace
The place where the cremation takes place is called crematorium. The crematorium consists of one or more ovens or furnaces and facilities for handling of the ashes. A cremation furnace is a large furnace capable of reaching high temperatures up to approximately 1600-1800 degrees fahrenheit , with special modifications to ensure the efficient disintegration of the corpse. One of these modifications is the aiming of the flames at the corpse's torso, where a majority of the corpse's mass rests.
The crematorium may be part of chapel or a funeral home, or it may be part of an independent facility or a service offered by a cemetery.
The furnaces use a number of different fuel sources, such as natural or propane gas. Modern cremation furnaces include control systems that monitor the conditions inside the furnace while a cremation is taking place. The operator can make adjustments to provide for more efficient burning, as well as ensuring that minimal environmental pollution occurs.
A cremation furnace is not designed to cremate more than one body at a time, and to do so is against the law in all 50 US states and many other nations.
The chamber where the body is placed is called the retort. It is lined with special bricks to help retain the heat. These bricks require replacement after about five years because of continual expansion and contraction due to temperature cycling.
Modern cremators are computer-controlled with safety devices and interlocks to ensure legal and safe use, e.g., the door cannot be opened until the cremator has reach the correct operating temperature. The coffin is injected into the retort as quickly as possible to avoid heat loss from the top-opening door. The coffin may be on a motorised trolley that can inject the coffin at speed, or one that can tilt to tip the coffin down a slope into the cremator.
Crematoriums will allow relatives to view the injection and sometimes this is done for religious reasons, e.g., Hindus. However, notwithstanding the respect with which the deceased is treated, this is fundamentally an industrial process and not recommended for the sensitive or faint-of-heart.
Cremators are a standard size. Large cities will have access to an oversize cremator that can handle deceased in the 200+ kg range. However, the grossly obese cannot be cremated and must be buried.
Body container
A body to be cremated is first placed in a container for cremation, which can be a simple corrugated cardboard box or a wooden casket. Most casket manufacturers provide a line of caskets specially built for cremation. Another option is a cardboard box that fits inside a wooden shell designed to look like a traditional casket. After the funeral service the interior box is removed from the shell before cremation, permitting the shell to be reused.
Funeral homes may also offer rental caskets, which are traditional caskets used only for the duration of the services, after which the body is transferred to another container for cremation. Rental caskets are sometimes designed with removable beds and liners, replaced after each use.
Australia: the deceased is cremated in the coffin supplied by the undertaker. Resuable or cardboard coffins are unknown. If cost is an issue a plain, particle-board coffin known in the trade as a 'chippie' will be offered. Handles (if fitted) are plastic and approved for use in a cremator. Coffins vary from unfinished particle board (covered with a velvet pall if there is a service) to solid timber. Most are veneered particle board.
Cremations can be 'delivery only' with no preceding chapel service at the crematorium (although a church service may have been held) or preceded by a service in one of the crematorium chapels. Delivery-only allows crematorioums to schedule cremations to make best use of the cremators, perhaps by holding the body overnight in a refrigerator. As a result a lower fee is applicable. Delivery-only may be referred to by industry jargon such as 'west chapel service'.
Crematorium chapels are increasingly sophisticated and may offer advanced AV facilities for showing Powerpoint (tm) or DVD presentations of the deceased's life during the service on large plasma screens, as well as video and sound recording of the service.
Burning and ashes collection
The box containing the body is placed in the retort and incinerated at a temperature of 760 to 1150 °C (1400 to 2100 °F). During the cremation process a large part of the body—especially the organs and other soft tissue—is vaporized due to the heat and is discharged through the exhaust system. All that remains after cremation are bone fragments, representing about five percent of the body's original mass, and the ashes of the cardboard box or wooden container. The entire process usually takes about two hours.
Jewellery, such as wristwatches and rings, are not removed. The only non-natural item required to be removed is a pacemaker. The untertaker is required to sign a declaration to the operator that any pacemaker has been removed. A pacemaker could explode and damage the cremator. The undertaker will remove a pacemaker prior to delivering the body to the crematorium.
After the incineration is completed, the bone fragments are swept out of the retort, and the operator uses a pulverizer called a cremulator (also known informally as a crembola) to process them into a consistent powder. The cremulator is essentially a rotating drum similar to a spindryer, except it is filled with steel ball bearings whose disturbance powders the weakened bones.
In Japan and Taiwan, the bones are not pulverized.
This is one of the reasons cremated remains are called ashes although a technical term sometimes used is "cremains". The ashes are placed in a container, which can be anything from a simple cardboard box to a fancy urn. An unavoidable consequence of cremation is that a tiny residue of bodily remains is left in the chamber after cremation and mixes with subsequent cremations.
Not all that remains is bone. There will be melted metal lumps from jewellery, casket furniture, and dental fillings, and surgical implants such as hip replacements. After grinding these are sieved out and later interred in common, consecrated ground in a remote area of the cemetery.
The Pyre alternative
An alternative method used in some cultures, such as Hinduism, is burning the corpse on a pyre. A pyre is a pile of wood upon which the deceased's body is placed on top or inside of. The mound is lit on fire, the fire consumes the wood and the deceased. This method is not commonly found in the western world where crematorium ovens are used, and is forbidden by law in some countries.
Ways of keeping or disposing of the ashes
Cremains are returned to the next of kin in a rectangular plastic container, contained within a further cardboard box or velvet sack. An official certificate of cremation prepared under the authority of the crematorium accompanies the remains.
Ashes can be kept in an urn, sprinkled on a special field or in the sea, or buried in the ground. The final disposition depends on the personal wishes of the deceased as well as their religious beliefs. Some religions will permit the ashes to be sprinkled or kept at home. Some religions, such as Roman Catholicism, insist on either burying or entombing the ashes.
Hinduism obliges the closest male relative (son, father, husband, etc.) of the deceased to immerse the ashes in the holy river Ganges, preferably at the holy city of Haridwar, India. The ashes may also be entombed, in case the deceased was a well-known person.
In Japan and Taiwan, the remaining bone fragments are given to the family and are used in a burial ritual before final interment.
History
In Europe, cremation begins with the Bronze Age Urnfield culture. In the Iron Age, inhumation becomes again more common, but persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. Homer's account of Patroclus' burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus similar to Urnfield burials. Early cremation may have been connected to ideas of fire sacrifice, such as those to Taranis in Celtic paganism (see human sacrifice). Cremation was common in Ancient Rome, but it came to be frowned upon with the rise of Christianity. Hinduism is notable for not only allowing but proscribing cremation.
Reasons for choosing cremation
People choose cremation for a variety of reasons, including religious reasons, other personal reasons, environmental reasons, and cost.
Religious reasons in Pagan faiths
Cremation is the usual means of burial in Patriarchal religions, the rising smoke symbolizing the deceased's spirit ascending to the domain of the Father deities in the heavens. Conversely, Matriarchal religions have favoured interment of the corpse, often in a fetal position, representing the return of the body to Mother Earth in the tomb which represents the uterus. Of modern Neo-Pagan religions, Ásatrú favours cremation.
Religious reasons in Dharmic faiths
While the Abrahamic religions prohibit cremation or prefer burial over cremation, the Eastern religions (i.e., Dharmic faiths) such as Hinduism and Buddhism mandate the use of cremation. However, two exceptions to cremation apply in Hinduism. For example, monks, Hijras, and children under five are buried. In Sikhism, burial is not prohibited although cremation is the preferred option. Cremation was also practised in the ancient world, being mentioned in the Old Testament and used widely in the Greek and Roman civilizations.
Resurgence of cremation in the Christian world
Main Article: Cremation in the Christian World
In Christian countries, cremation fell out of favour due to the Christian belief in the physical resurrection of the body, and in order to differentiate between the Iron Age European pre-Christian Pagan religions, who usually cremated their dead. Beginning in the Middle Ages, rationalists and classicists began to advocate it. In the Medieval Europe, cremation was practised only on special occasions, such as in situations where there were multitudes of corpses simultaneously present, such as after a battle, after a pestilence or famine, and there was an imminent danger of diseases spreading by the corpses.
Cremation began to make a comeback in the Christian world in the 19th century. Sir Henry Thompson, Surgeon to Queen Victoria, was the first to recommend the practice on health grounds after seeing the cremation apparatus of Professor Brunetti of Padua, Italy at the Vienna Exposition in 1873. In 1874 Thompson founded The Cremation Society of England, despite opposition from the Church of England. Cremation was declared as legal in England and Wales when Dr William Price was prosecuted for cremating his son; formal legislation followed later with the passing of the Cremation Act 1902[1], (this Act did not extend to Ireland) which imposed procedural requirements before a cremation could occur and restricted the practice to authorised places. Some of the various Protestant churches came to accept cremation, with the rationale being, "God can resurrect a bowl of ashes just as conveniently as he can resurrect a bowl of dust".
For most of its history, the Roman Catholic Church had a ban in place against cremation. In 1963, the Pope lifted the ban on cremation, and in 1966 allowed Catholic priests to officiate at cremation ceremonies. The Church still officially prefers the traditional burial of the deceased. Despite this preference, cremation is now permitted as long as it is not done to express a refusal to believe in the resurrection of the body, and the church has become more open to the idea of cremation. [2] Until 1997, Church regulations stipulated that cremation was to take place after the funeral service has taken place. The Church does specify requirements for the reverent disposition of ashes. This means that the ashes are to be buried or entombed in an appropriate container, such as an urn. The Church does not permit the scattering of ashes or keeping them at home.
Some branches of Christianity still oppose cremation. The Eastern Orthodox Church forbids cremation. Exceptions are made for circumstances where it may not be avoided (when civil authority demands it, or epidemics) or if it may be sought for good cause, but when a cremation is willfully chosen for no good cause by the one who is deceased, he or she is not permitted a funeral in the church and may also be permanently excluded from liturgical prayers for the departed. In Orthodoxy, cremation is a rejection of the dogma of the general resurrection, and as such is viewed harshly. Some of the more traditional members of the Catholic church have objected to the practice of allowing cremation.
Cremation and Judaism
Judaism has traditionally disapproved cremation, as it was the traditional means of disposing the dead in the neighbouring Bronze Age Pagan Semitic cultures, but also disapproved preservation of the dead by means of embalming and mummifying, as the Egyptians did. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, as the Jewish cemeteries in many European towns had become crowded and were running out of space, cremation became an approved means of burial amongst the Liberal Jews.
The Orthodox Jews have maintained stricter line on cremation, and disapprove it as Halakha (Jewish law) forbids it, considering a soul of a cremated person will remain as a restless wanderer for eternity. Also, the memory of the Holocaust, where millions of Jews were murdered and their bodies disposed by burning them either in crematoria or burning pits, has brought extremely negative connotations on cremation in the minds of Orthodox Jews, which often view it as blasphemy.
Cremation and Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrians have traditionally prohibited cremation, on the grounds of the sacred nature of fire. They consider fire would become contaminated if it is used to dispose dead corpses. Instead they have left their dead on specific Towers of Silence, where birds of prey are allowed to devour their flesh; the bones are then entombed in the ossuary inside the tower. As modern hygiene regulations prohibit this means of body disposal in many countries, Zoroastrians either favour conventional burials, while some sects do allow cremation, though this is forbidden by the Gathas. The former Queen lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who was Zoroastrian, was cremated after his death.
List of religions that permit cremation
Ásatrú, Buddhism, Christianity (containing Baptist Church, Calvinism, Church of England, Church of Ireland, Church of Scotland, Church in Wales, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravian Church, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism, Salvation Army, Scottish Episcopal Church), Christian Science, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (permitted but discouraged), Hare Krishna (ISKCON), Hinduism (mandatory except for sanyasis, i.e., monks and children under five), Jainism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Liberal Judaism, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Sikhs, Society of Friends (Quakers), Unitarian Universalism
List of religions that forbid cremation
Bahá'í Faith, Eastern Orthodox Church, Iglesia ni Cristo, Islam, Orthodox Judaism, Zoroastrianism.
- Neo-Confucianism under Zhu Xi strongly discourages cremation of one's parents' corpses as unfilial.
Other personal reasons
Some people find they prefer cremation for other reasons. For some people it is because they are not attracted to traditional burial. The thought of a long, slow decomposition process is unappealing to some, and they find that they prefer cremation for that reason.
Other people view cremation as a way of simplifying their funeral process. These people view a traditional burial as an unneeded complication of their funeral process, and thus chose cremation to make their services as simple as possible.
Environmental reasons
Others prefer cremation for environmental reasons. Some are concerned that during bodily decomposition body fluids and embalming chemicals could contaminate the Earth. Some locations have found that long-buried bodies are now causing groundwater contamination. Arsenic, used as an embalming chemical in the 19th and early 20th centuries, has been known to cause serious pollution later on.
Another environmental concern is that traditional burial takes up a great deal of space. In a traditional burial the body is buried in a casket made from a variety of materials. In America the casket is often placed inside a concrete vault or liner before burial in the ground. While individually this may not take much room, combined with other burials it can over time cause serious space concerns. Many cemeteries, particularly in Europe and Japan as well as those in larger cities, are starting to run out of space. In Tokyo, for example, it is almost impossible to find a traditional funeral plot.
One item of concern has been that the exhaust systems of cremation ovens may contribute to air pollution. In response crematorium manufacturers have built computerized control systems that regulate the exhaust systems to keep crematoriums from contributing to air pollution. Additionally some crematoria remove all plastic handles and fittings from a coffin before cremation and these are disposed of separately for the same reason.
Cost of cremation
The cost factor tends to make cremation attractive. Generally speaking, cremation costs less than traditional burial services, especially if direct cremation is chosen, in which the body is cremated as soon as legally possible without any sort of services. However, there is wide variation in the cost of cremation services, having mainly to do with the amount of service desired by the deceased or the family. A cremation can take place after a full traditional funeral service, which adds cost. The type of container used also influences cost.
Cremation makes possible the scattering of remains over an area, eliminating the need for and expense of a burial space. However, some religions such as Roman Catholicism require burial or entombment of cremated remains, and while not required the church does prefer that cremation take place after the funeral Mass. Burial or entombment also adds to the cost. The price will depend on what the deceased and/or the family has chosen. Cremated remains require far less space than a traditional burial or entombment and cremation plots or columbarium niches usually cost less than a burial plot or mausoleum crypt.
Negative recent history experiences with cremation
Environmental Concerns
Cremation is often regarded as a more environmentally responsible alternative to burial; however, cremation does have an impact on the environment:
The major emissions from crematories are: nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, mercury, hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl), NMVOCs, and other heavy metals, as well as a number of POP’s. (1)
According to the Space Invaders Environment Programme report on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), emissions from crematoria, although comparatively small on an international scale, are still statistically significant. The POP inventory indicates that crematoria contribute 0.2 % of the global emission of dioxins and furans.
World War II
During the Holocaust, massive crematoria were constructed and operated round-the-clock by the Nazis within their concentration camps and extermination camps to dispose of the bodies of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, and other prisoners who were killed or died in the camps daily. In addition to the atrocity of mass murder, the remains of Jews were thus disposed of in a manner deeply offensive to Orthodox Judaism because Halakha, the Jewish law, forbids cremation and holds that the soul of a cremated person cannot find its final repose. Since then, cremation has carried an extremely negative connotation for many Jews. A similar attitude also remains prevalent in some countries which were occupied by Germans during WWII, such as Poland and parts of Russia.
The Tri-State Crematory Incident
A recent controversial event involved the failure to cremate, known as the Tri-State Crematory Incident. In the state of Georgia in the United States in early 2002, three hundred thirty-four corpses that were supposed to have been cremated in the previous few years at the Tri-State Crematory were found intact and decaying on the crematorium's grounds, having been dumped there by the crematorium's proprietor. Many of the corpses were beyond identification. In many cases the "ashes" that were returned to the family were not human remains - they were made of wood and concrete dust.
Eventually Ray Brent Marsh - who was the operator at the time the bodies were discovered - had 787 criminal charges filed against him. On November 19, 2004 Marsh pleaded guilty to all charges. Marsh was sentenced to two 12 year prison sentences from both Georgia and Tennessee which he is serving concurrently. Afterwards he will be on probation for 75 years.
Civil suits were filed against the Marsh family as well as a number of funeral homes who shipped bodies to Tri-State. These suits were ultimately settled. The property of the Marsh family has been sold, but collection of the full $80 million judgment remains doubtful. Families have expressed the desire to return the former Tri-State crematory to a natural, park like setting.
The Indian Ocean tsunamis
The magnitude 9.0-9.3 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake triggered a series of lethal tsunamis on December 26, 2004 that killed almost 300,000 people which were the deadliest tsunamis in recorded history. The tsunamis killed people over an area ranging from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand, and the north-western coast of Malaysia, to thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and even as far as Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa.
Authorities had difficulties dealing with the large numbers of bodies, and as a result thousands of bodies were of necessity cremated together. Many of these bodies were not identified or viewed by relatives prior to cremation, which would have helped families better cope with their grief. A particular point of objection was that the bodies of Westerners were kept separate (officials understanding the dire long-term consequences for tourism if they were not identified and repatriated) from those of Asian descent, who were mostly locals. This meant that the bodies of tourists from other Asian nations, such as Japan and Korea, were mass cremated rather than being returned to their country of origin for funeral rites. However, time was of the essence. After one to two weeks of decomposition in the heat, the body of a deceased person becomes nearly impossible to identify; markers such as age, race and even gender become difficult to discern.
Sources
- EMEP/CORINAIR Atmospheric Emission Inventory Guidebook - 3rd edition October 2002 UPDATE - Technical report #30 – Cremation
See also
- Dr William Price the eccentric Welsh physician whose prosecution confirmed the legality of cremation in England and Wales.
- List of people who were cremated
- List of fictional people who were cremated
- Burial in space
- Immolation
External links
