Toxic emissions from crematories: A review

In recent years, the cremation ratio of cadavers has increased dramatically in many countries. Crematories have been identified as sources of various environmental pollutants, being polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), and mercury those raising most concern. In contrast to other incineration processes for which the number of studies on their toxic emissions is considerable, references related to PCDD/F and mercury emissions from crematories and their health risks are very limited. In this paper, the scientific information concerning these issues, using the databases PubMed, Scopus and Scirus, is reviewed. Results show that in comparison with PCDD/F emissions from other sources, those corresponding to crematories are significantly lower, while those of mercury should not be underrated.