Technology for emission control still far from effective, insider says

China should step up pollution monitoring and control during the cremation of bodies at funeral homes, the head of the country's funeral association has said.

China has more than 1,700 funeral homes, and the emission control in those institutions is still far from effective, Qi Xuesen, president of the China Funeral Association, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"It saddens me to read the reports on air pollution and climate change because the country's funeral homes are playing a part," he said.

Qi said that current technology at funeral homes is still far from adequate to control the emissions, and that new technology is the only way to reduce pollutants.

In a report released on Wednesday, two researchers with the National Research Center for Environmental Analysis and Measure said that the country is in urgent need of establishing a pollution control and management system in the funeral sector, because cremation of bodies has posed immense challenges to the environment.

The two researchers, Yin Huimin and Liu Aimin, said in the report that the pollution of heavy metal and dioxins should be closely monitored during the cremation process.

Investigations conducted by the civil affairs and environmental protection ministries from 2010 to last year showed that the crematoriums at funeral homes cannot effectively control emissions of oxynitride and dioxin pollutants.

Authorities should encourage funeral homes to introduce more environmentally friendly equipment, and environmental protection authorities should include the monitoring of pollutants in the funeral sector in the regular air pollution monitoring process.