The City Council delayed a decision Tuesday night on a proposed funeral home after an e-mail from a state health official indicated the cancer risk from formaldehyde emissions might be higher than first estimated.
Council members said they would wait for John Finnell, senior engineer for the county Air Pollution Control District, to check the calculations.
Ron Harder wants to open Rocklin's first full-service funeral home in an office complex adjacent to Antelope Creek Elementary School.
Nearby residents oppose the project because formaldehyde would be vented outside from the embalming preparation room.
Finnell used a computerized air model to assess the health risk and found that under the worst-case scenario, the cancer risk is only about 1 in a million.
But opponent Mark Crabtree contacted the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which estimated the cancer risk from long-term exposure would be about six per 10,000 based on the highest estimate of formaldehyde concentration.
– Jennifer Morita
