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Eco-burials - Exploding some myths
By David Cathcart
Since all buried bodies will decay eventually, the real issue is whether they can pollute a water table and what will they pollute it with.
The pollutants fall into three groups:
- The "natural" chemicals in the body, some of which will
change with decay.
- Any living microbes in the body.
- Chemicals used to embalm, or to make the material for the coffin.
This subject is not widely studied, but what has been found is that it is possible for microbes and "natural" chemicals to cause contamination, but that depends very much on how close the cemetery is to the water table, the nature of the soil, and how heavily the cemetery is used.
Burials which are not preserved and are done in a way which encourages rapid decay could dump many microbes and chemicals into the ground more rapidly than preserved bodies, and that increases the risk of pollution.
Contamination by formaldehyde is unlikely because it is broken down rapidly in
soil. As long as cemeteries are properly located, there is very little chance that water tables will be polluted.
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