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1240/5(8564)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M. TADIER OF ST. BRELADE
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 9th DECEMBER 2014
Question
Will the Minister:
- provide an update on what steps, if any, he will take during his term of office to achieve zero mercury emissions at the crematorium;
- outline when and whether Jersey is likely to adopt Promession technology in respect of burials;
- advise what progress is being made with Ministerial colleagues to bring forward a new burial law?
Answer
- An order is already placed with an independent specialist company in the United Kingdom to carry out emissions monitoring, specifically for mercury, at the Crematorium. The timing of this monitoring is dependant on there being sufficient throughput.
This situation is likely to occur in early January, but is not something over which I have any influence.
These measurements will give us a baseline from which to work, and on which to base our plans for the future.
- HSSD is working with dentists to encourage use of alternative materials for use in dental work and a higher uptake of these products has been noted. Work continues in this area to encourage reduced inputs from dental amalgam. This will see a natural reduction in mercury emissions from the crematorium as practices change
- Promession technology remains unproven in a working crematorium setting, and is but one of several technologies developed, or being developed, to apply advanced techniques to the disposal of the dead.
Officers are kept updated on its development. Until these technologies are proven in use, it is too early to say when, or indeed if, they will come to Jersey.
- Officers are working on the legislation which deals with disposal of the dead. Regulations will be brought forward to bring into use the Burials Law 2004, as amended in 2008, which was enacted but never brought into use.
The Cremation (Jersey) Law 1953 will be brought up to date and future proofed to allow the introduction of new technologies and new arrangements for operation of crematoria should the States so decide.
It is this Law, suitably amended, which could allow for technology such as Promession to be used on Jersey, if it were determined by the States as the most appropriate and viable way forward.