Green burials: A dying wish to be 'home for fish'

Green burials: A dying wish to be 'home for fish'
Carole Dunham, 69, loved the ocean. Last July, she was diagnosed with cancer and had only a few months to live. Dunham knew her last footprint had to be a green one, and she started looking into eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burial.
Carole Dunham, 69, had her remains memorialized on an offshore reef.

Carole Dunham, 69, had her remains memorialized on an offshore reef.
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The concept of "going green" has taken new life in the death care industry as eco-minded companies tap into the needs of those like Dunham.

From biodegradable caskets to natural burial sites, death is becoming less of a dark matter than a green one.

Dunham, an avid scuba diver, chose an eco-friendly company that would combine her cremated remains to form an artificial memorial reef.

"She loved the idea of always being in the water as an alternative to being cremated and scattered," said her daughter Nina Dunham.

Dying is arguably the most natural phenomenon in the world, but modern death rituals -- embalming with formaldehyde-based solutions and traditional burial in concrete vaults -- are not nature-friendly, according to environmentalists.

Along with its dead, the United States buries 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, 827,060 tons of toxic embalming fluid, 90,000 tons of steel (from caskets), and 30 million tons of hardwood board each year, according to the Green Burial Council, an independent nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"We can rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge with that amount of metal," said Joe Sehee, the council's executive director. "The amount of concrete is enough to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit."
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Sehee established a burgeoning network of death-care providers that have earned a green thumbs-up in the council's eco-certification program, the first of its kind in the industry.

"We want to reduce carbon emissions, waste and toxins in the death care industry and utilize burial to steward natural areas in the U.S.," said Sehee.

Among the certified eco-providers is Eternal Reefs, based in Decatur, Georgia.

"We're the surf and turf of natural burial," said George Frankel, CEO of Eternal Reefs.

The company takes the green movement to sea level by offering a living legacy in the form of underwater reefs used to create new marine habitats for fish and other sea life. The artificial reefs are cast from a mixture of environmentally safe cement and cremated remains.

Eternal Reefs was the logical choice for Dunham, who died on November 3. "She liked the idea of being a home for fish," said her daughter.

This month, Dunham will travel to Florida to see her mother's reef lowered off the coast of North Miami Beach. Other families will join her, wearing shorts and T-shirts instead of dark suits and dresses. They will have a chance to decorate the reefs with flowers and other sea-friendly mementos.

A brass plaque will help Dunham identify her mother's reef. She intends to visit the underwater memorial by scuba diving there in the future.

"These reefs will be covered up with sea life in a very short period of time, so they make a significant contribution," Frankel said. The reefs last about 500 years, and so far about 300 have been dropped off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.

Another eco-provider certified by the Green Burial Council is UK-based Eco Coffins Ltd., which allows its customers to design their own 100 percent biodegradable coffins, made from 90 percent recycled grid honeycomb cardboard. The company says the coffins release 72 percent less carbon monoxide in the cremation process compared to a traditional coffin.

"We are appealing to customers to make the responsible choice," said Sophie Dansie, founder and director of Eco Coffins. "The fact that standard chipboard is full of resins and formaldehyde, which is either released into the earth when buried or as emissions when burnt, is really unknown to the general public."
Buried yearly

* Reinforced concrete: 1.6 million tons
* Toxic embalming fluid: 827,060 tons
* Steel from caskets: 90,000 tons
* Hardwood from caskets: 30 million tons


Source: Green Burial Council

The vibrant coffins have even captured some attention in Hollywood. They have a cameo as props in the upcoming film "Powder Blue."

An eco-friendly funeral can also help conserve land and protect it from development. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is working with the Green Burial Council to become the first state-park agency to offer cremation-based green burials. The funds raised from the services will be used to acquire new state park lands.

"We want burials to be more sustainable for the planet, more meaningful for the planet and economically viable for the provider," said Sehee. "We don't want this to be a marketing gimmick that diminishes the social and ecological benefits of this concept," he emphasized.

The death care industry, like others, has its share of green hype. While it might be a bit macabre for some, CoffinCouches.com sells eclectic couches made out of used coffins. Founder Vidal Herrera buys unwanted or slightly damaged coffins from funeral homes that would otherwise go to a landfill.

From these discarded materials, Herrera designs artsy Goth couches you might see in a music video or a tattoo parlor. Herrera's clientele includes musicians, actors and others who can afford $3,500 for a couch.

Hype or no hype, the decision is a personal one that ultimately rests with an individual or family. Sehee emphasizes that the Green Burial Council is careful not to diminish anyone's choices or make recommendations about the greenest way to go.

"There are shades of green and people can distinguish one shade from another," he said.

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5 Tips to reduce Cell Phone Risks

Here are some more good points on reducing cell phone risks:

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- "I hope you're talking to me on a speakerphone," Devra Davis barks at me when I call her on my cell phone. "You'd better not be holding that phone up to your head."
Cell phones do emit radiation. No one knows definitively whether it's enough to worry about.

Cell phones do emit radiation. No one knows definitively whether it's enough to worry about.
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Indeed, I'm not. This is a good thing, because you don't want to get into an argument with Davis on this subject. She's the director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Environmental Oncology, and her group recently put out recommendations that we should be using a speakerphone or ear piece. The report says children, who have thinner skulls and developing brains, should use cell phones only in case of emergency.

And heaven forbid anyone should carry a cell phone in a pocket or clipped to a belt. "You're just roasting your bone marrow," Davis said.

Oh, boy. Another thing to worry about. Or maybe Davis is an alarmist. It's so hard to tell. Although there are many large studies showing no connection between mobile phones and cancer, there are a few that do. As Davis puts it, do you really want to play Russian roulette with your head? Explainer: Radiation fields and the brain »

But if you do buy the cellphones-cause-cancer argument, you have to figure out the best way to talk on a cell phone, seeing as how most of us can't live without them. Should you use the wired headset that came with your phone? A Bluetooth earpiece? iReport.com: Does your kid have a cell phone?
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I embarked on a journey this past week to answer these questions and at many points have been very sorry I did. This is the mother of all "the jury is still out" issues.

Cell phones have been wildly popular for only a matter of years, and it can take at least a decade for cancers to show up. Studies contradict each other, and scientists bicker: Some will tell you with great conviction that there's nothing to worry about. Others will tell you with equal conviction that an epidemic of brain tumors may be just around the corner.

The cell phone industry itself says "the overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk." You can Video watch the experts go at it on "Larry King Live" » this week.

So what are we all to do until they figure it out? After enough interviews with physicists, engineers and doctors to make me want to stick my head in a microwave oven, one common line of reasoning emerged. Cell phones do emit radiation. No one knows definitively whether it's enough to worry about. Mobile phones meet federal safety limits, but if you're still worried, there are some simple steps you can take to lower your exposure to radiation. Video Watch more on limiting your risk »

1. Use the speakerphone

This was, without question, the favorite alternative of the experts I talked to. Nothing is near your head. "Hold it away from a minimum of a few inches. A foot or two is ideal," said Magda Havas, an associate professor with the Institute for Health Studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada.

Havas gives me a little math lesson. Every inch you can get away from your body, the radiation reduces very quickly. "Hold it out two inches, and the radiation drops by a factor of four. Hold it out four inches, and it drops by a factor of 16," she says.

In other words, said Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, "every millimeter counts."

2. Use a wired headset with a ferrite bead

No, this is not a piece of jewelry. A ferrite bead is a clip you put on the wire of a headset. The concern is that the wire itself emits radiation into your ear. The bead is designed to absorb the radiation so you don't. They're inexpensive and available at stores or online.

These clips are a favorite of Slesin's. "It's the way to go," he said.

Another fan: Lawrie Challis, physicist and former chair of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, a government panel in Britain. "They did tests at the University of York and found that under even the worst conditions, if you use a ferrite bead, you can't even measure the radiation coming off the wire. This common device kills the radiation."

Of course, if the phone is in your pocket or clipped to your belt, all bets are off, because the phone itself will be radiating into your body. So if you're worried about radiation, keep the phone as far away as possible, and Challis adds to do your best to make sure the wire isn't touching your body.

3. Use a Bluetooth earpiece

A Bluetooth earpiece still has radiation, but it's at least 100 times less than the radiation you get when you hold a cell phone to your head, Havas says.

Our experts were split on which was better: a Bluetooth headset or a wired one. Israeli government recommendations issued this week specifically suggest a wire; Havas likes the Bluetooth. But even she says not to wear it when you're not talking; it still sends out a signal.

"Bluetooth is only whispering radiation into your ear. The problem is, some people wear it all the time," she says. "At the very least, switch it from ear to ear so you don't have too much exposure on one side."

Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, says Bluetooth earpieces radiate 200 times less energy than cell phones. "There is no evidence that a Bluetooth headset has any adverse effects on its users," he said.

4. Use a "hollow tube" earpiece

It's just like a regular wired earpiece, except the last six inches or so -- the part next to your ear -- is a hollow tube. There's no wire under the plastic.
Health Library

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"You're getting the sound through the air. You're not dependent on radiofrequency waves," said Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany.

Hollow tube earpieces can be purchased on several Web sites.

5. Get a phone with less radiation

Phone radiation is measured in specific absorption rate, or SAR. To look up the SAR for your phone, check this list on CNET.com.

You might think the experts mentioned above all use earpieces or a speakerphone. Not so. Several said they hold it right up to their heads because they use their cells so infrequently, they're not worried about radiation.
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"I use it maybe once or twice a week, no more than 10 minutes," said Challis, the former head of the British committee that studied cell phones and radiation. "I use a land line whenever I can."

It's the exposure, day after day, year after year, that matters. As Challis, who's retired, puts it, "If I were younger, I'd take this much more seriously.