I don't like pollution either, but this is too much.
Pulling Teeth
In mercury-laden Silicon Valley, environmentalists say extreme toxicity calls for extreme measures--even if it means making crematories remove the filled teeth of the dead.
By Mary Spicuzza
Dealing with the remains of dearly departed loved ones is never easy. Bereavement aside, decisions loom about whether to opt for open or closed casket and burial or cremation, and what to do with the ashes. Now local environmentalists argue that those opting for cremation need to start asking yet another question: What should be done with the teeth of the deceased?
Conservationists working to reduce mercury contamination in the Bay Area say that mercury-laden dental fillings, which go up in
smoke during cremation, are creeping into the environment at alarming levels.
"There are a lot of questions about air emissions from crematoria, but we definitely believe that it's a significant source of mercury contamination," says Cori Traub, project director for San Francisco-based Clean Water Action. "It's a gruesome thing to think about, but it's something we should control, and can control."
Traub and other ecologically minded members of the pollution prevention workgroup of the Mercury Council, which includes representatives of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, want to take action to reduce all emissions of mercury, whether through air or water or from old thermometers. Working with the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, they also hope to reduce the amount of mercury that ultimately washes into the bay, from streams, runoff and even from particles in the air which enter the water supply via acid rain. Only preliminary studies have been completed, with more to follow over the next few months, but the environmental community believes the crematories are the third highest contributor to modern air emissions of mercury in the region, according to a 1999 Public Works Department memorandum.
The proposed solution favored by activists is to pull the teeth of the deceased before cremation.
But Randy Krassow, president of Santa Cruz Memorial Park, says that while some see pulling teeth as a quick fix, it would be far more complicated in practice.
"I can't imagine how it would be easy. I've had teeth pulled before and it wasn't easy," Krassow says. "But it would be time-consuming and expensive to start drilling mercury out of teeth. And I'd be thinking about how the families would feel about this."
Krassow says that few dentists are trained in forensic dentistry, and adds that most bodies treated by his Santa Cruz crematorium already have dentures anyway
Pulling Teeth
In mercury-laden Silicon Valley, environmentalists say extreme toxicity calls for extreme measures--even if it means making crematories remove the filled teeth of the dead.
By Mary Spicuzza
Dealing with the remains of dearly departed loved ones is never easy. Bereavement aside, decisions loom about whether to opt for open or closed casket and burial or cremation, and what to do with the ashes. Now local environmentalists argue that those opting for cremation need to start asking yet another question: What should be done with the teeth of the deceased?
Conservationists working to reduce mercury contamination in the Bay Area say that mercury-laden dental fillings, which go up in
smoke during cremation, are creeping into the environment at alarming levels.
"There are a lot of questions about air emissions from crematoria, but we definitely believe that it's a significant source of mercury contamination," says Cori Traub, project director for San Francisco-based Clean Water Action. "It's a gruesome thing to think about, but it's something we should control, and can control."
Traub and other ecologically minded members of the pollution prevention workgroup of the Mercury Council, which includes representatives of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, want to take action to reduce all emissions of mercury, whether through air or water or from old thermometers. Working with the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, they also hope to reduce the amount of mercury that ultimately washes into the bay, from streams, runoff and even from particles in the air which enter the water supply via acid rain. Only preliminary studies have been completed, with more to follow over the next few months, but the environmental community believes the crematories are the third highest contributor to modern air emissions of mercury in the region, according to a 1999 Public Works Department memorandum.
The proposed solution favored by activists is to pull the teeth of the deceased before cremation.
But Randy Krassow, president of Santa Cruz Memorial Park, says that while some see pulling teeth as a quick fix, it would be far more complicated in practice.
"I can't imagine how it would be easy. I've had teeth pulled before and it wasn't easy," Krassow says. "But it would be time-consuming and expensive to start drilling mercury out of teeth. And I'd be thinking about how the families would feel about this."
Krassow says that few dentists are trained in forensic dentistry, and adds that most bodies treated by his Santa Cruz crematorium already have dentures anyway
