User:Amon69/sandbox
Burning or buring dead body which one is better?[edit]
It has been a common practice and believes among generations to bury their deceased underground. With the growing of populations especially in the developed countries, the need to provide land and or space for various land use practices e.g. housing, industries, agriculture, the emerging concept of environmental management and health and handling of hazardous waste has become crucial. In response to the ever growing demands and shifting of mindsets, developed countries have adopted a practice to cremate the deceased. One vital question for consideration is then whether it is healthy and if it is of morals and religious to cremate or bury the dead? According to Robinson (2004), the word cremation comes from the Latin word cremo which means "to burn" whilst burial or interment is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over
Health implications[edit]
Some nations believes in burying dead bodies because elements that are present in the human body are present in lesser or greater quantity in the soil. Hence it is more scientific to bury a dead body, as it easily gets decomposed and mixed in the soil. One of the most common myths associated with disasters is that dead bodies are responsible for epidemics, in fact a relationship between corpses and epidemics have never been scientifically demonstrated or reported [1].
Environmental and Pollution implications[edit]
Cremating (burning) the dead body leads to pollution of the atmosphere which is detrimental to health and harmful for the environment. There is no such pollution caused by burying a dead body [2].. On the contrary, the pollution of groundwater by buried corpses is rare although burial sites do produce dioxin and furan emissions which are potentially highly hazardous to humans; exposure to dioxins includes skin diseases and cancer (WHO, 2012)
To cremate a dead body several trees have to be chopped, which reduces the greenery and harms the environment and the ecology. When dead bodies are buried, besides the trees being saved, the surrounding land becomes fertile and it improves the environment (Allaahuak, 2012). The land used for burying a dead body can be re-utilised for burying another body after a few years since the human body gets decomposed and mixed in the soil. On another note according to Norman et.al (2012), cremation saves valuable land in many instances. As land becomes scarcer, cremation is more widely endorsed. Those choosing cremation realize that millions of acres of choice land are already given over to cemeteries, and they are convinced that better use should be made of our limited soil. In addition there is also electric cremation which does not necessarily involve cutting down trees and promised to be pollution-free, cost-efficient and time-saving cremation.
Conclusions[edit]
With the ever growing changes of the societies and increased population needs, it’s becoming more and more inevitable to consider conserving land for other potential land use activities. In addition, with emerging viral and lethal diseases one has to be cautious about possibilities of pollution of the water bodies by corpses to humans. Moreover, the costs incurred during traditional burial methods are exorbitant and we have to start considering options that can cut costs. The trend toward cremation may be progress of the right type and could be considered at least as good a choice.[3].