February 13, 2011|By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times Reporting from Sacramento — Assemblyman Jeff Miller needed one more vote last spring on his bill to legalize "bio-cremation," a chemical process that he called a water-based alternative to incineration.
"Going green," Miller said, holding back a grin, "is not just a way of life."
His Assembly colleagues laughed and shipped Miller's one-page proposal to the state Senate with no questions — and unanimous support. Half of the Legislature had signed off on a bill that could have serious environmental effects.
As it turns out, dissolving corpses in chemicals may not be so green. According to one analysis, the process can warp plumbing and singe crematorium workers. A legislative intern discovered the environmental failings that dozens of lawmakers had overlooked.
Miller's "green funeral" bill is one example of the thousands of measures the Legislature takes up each session. Many slip through with little examination.
Deliberations can hinge on emotions and catch phrases as much as on fact, and sometimes they end more quickly than a discussion of where to grab lunch. One debate on the cremation bill lasted less than a minute.
Miller (R-Corona) said he was eager to embrace innovation after a funeral director in his district approached him about bio-cremation. The assemblyman saw jobs and a new industry for recession-wracked California -- and a way to help curb the state's greenhouse gas emissions.
Supporters say the process is significantly cleaner than traditional cremation, which uses fossil fuels to burn corpses and emits a variety of pollutants.
"I was trying to help a local business owner provide an alternative market for their business," said Miller, vice-chairman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. "We tried to learn as much as we could about it with not a lot of history here in the United States and a limited amount of manufacturers that make the equipment."
The process was developed in Europe in the 1990s as a method of disposing of cows infected with mad-cow disease. Funeral homes would place corpses in a pressurized chamber filled with water and lye and heat the chamber to 370 degrees.
After about three hours, all that remains is bone in a soup of salt and amino acids. The fragments can be ground into ash and the thick, coffee-colored liquid poured down the drain.
