Funeral industry grapples with technology shift

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A 142-kilogram pig recently served as a surrogate for a human corpse in a lab experiment designed to determine if an emerging technology known as low-temperature alkaline hydrolysis is a threat to public health

An alkaline hydrolysis device is seen at the Newcastle Funeral Home in Newcastle, Ont. on Sept. 18, 2019. The device is an alternative to burial or cremation, where a process involving heat, water and an alkaline chemical breaks remains down.A 142-kilogram pig has been thrust into the middle of a contentious debate in the funeral industry, and the unusual development could end up reshaping how the sector is regulated in Ontario, and across the country.

Mr. Charbonneau turned to the Indiana University Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine to conduct a peer-reviewed study. The pig – which died of natural causes and was later injected with infectious agents – was put through an alkaline hydrolysis machine similar to the one Mr. Charbonneau has.

After giving Mr. Charbonneau a licence to use the process in 2017, the BAO changed course last summer amid concerns from public health authorities. Funeral homes in Ontario want to offer two forms of alkaline hydrolysis: the low-temperature process, which conducts the procedure at 95.5 degrees C over 14 hours, and a similar one that reaches 150C and takes about six hours. Applications to operate high-temperature machines have been put on hold.

“We decided to use [alkaline hydrolysis] as a bit of a testing ground in a way, because [the debate] we go through here we’re going to have to go through on each of the other technologies,” Mr. LeBlanc said.

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