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Water cremations are gaining popularity in the US as liquefaction of human corpses is an environmentally conscious and less expensive alternative to traditional burials.
Also known as aquamation, the technique involves placing the dead body in a vessel of water and alkaline chemicals for up to six hours, leaving bones that are ground into a powder and placed in an urn.
Aquamation costs up to $3,000 compared to the average burial of $8,000, plus about $10,000 more for cemetery costs.
Water cremation is legal in 21 states, but casket companies and the Catholic Church have tried to halt legalization across the country. The funeral industry is reportedly worth $20.2 billion.
Americans choose water cremation after death, where their corpse is placed in a larger steel vessel filled with water and alkaline substances.
After about six hours, everything except the bones is liquid. The bones are then ground into a powder (pictured)
Aquamation is legal in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont , Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Arizona, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas are in the process of legalizing aquamation.
The process was developed by a farmer in 1888 to break down animal carcasses into fertilizer and laboratories later took over remove contaminated animal bodies.
Minnesota became the first U.S. state to legalize the process for human bodies in 2003, but it wasn’t used in the funeral industry until 2011.
The corpse is sealed in a long, stainless steel chamber filled with 95 percent water and five percent alkali, a chemical that dissolves in water, combines with acids to form salts, and makes acids less acidic.
In low-temperature alkaline hydrolysis, the solution reaches a temperature just below the boiling point, the process is carried out at atmospheric pressure, and the body is reduced for 14 to 16 hours.
In a higher-temperature version of the process, where the mixture reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit and creates more pressure, the body is reduced in size in four to six hours.
Aquamation costs up to $3,000 compared to the average $8,000 burial, plus about $10,000 more for cemetery costs
Water cremation is legal in 21 states, but coffin companies and the Catholic Church have tried to halt legalization across the country
The solution is heated to 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and gently circulated throughout the process.
During the operation fats are reduced to salts, proteins to amino acids and small peptides and carbohydrates to sugars.
The process breaks down all organic materials into their most basic building blocks, so small that not a trace of protein or nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) remains.
The organic substances are dissolved in the water, which consists of 96 percent water and four percent amino acids, sugars and salts.
The sterile process water is released for recycling and the vessel performs a fresh water rinse for the equipment and remains.
There is also a difference in the remains of flame cremation compared to water cremation
The corpse is sealed in a long, stainless steel chamber filled with 95 percent water and 5 percent alkali, a chemical that dissolves in water, combines with acids to form salts, and makes acids less acidic
When the operator opens the door, only the inorganic bone minerals remain.
These minerals are then powdered and returned to the family in an urn.
And the material from water cremation is much thinner than what remains from fire cremation.
The waste water from the process is discharged to the sewage system or used to fertilize plants.
Bio-Response Solutions has manufactured all 60 machines used in the process, and funeral directors in 15 states offer the option.
The Vatican has covered cremation in general, but has not weighed in on the specific moral implications of alkaline hydrolysis, probably because the process is fairly new in humans.
However, other local churches have addressed this alkaline hydrolysis when faced with this issue.
In 2011, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington and then chairman of the Doctrine Committee of the American Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), ruled that it is “unnecessarily disrespectful to the human body.”
According to the Berkeley Planning Diary“Each year, the chemicals and materials interred with bodies in the United States include approximately 30 million plank feet of hardwood, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 104,272 tons of steel, and 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete.”
Flame cremations in America pump out about 360,000 tons of carbon annually, while water cremations release none.
Flame cremation has become popular in the US and is expected to make up 60 percent of burial methods this year.
According to the Cremation Research Council, the average cost of a direct cremation in the US is $1,100.