Despite a new air analysis showing the cancer risk from his planned funeral home to be less than originally estimated, Heritage Oaks Memorial Chapel owner Ron Harder is looking at using a formaldehyde-free chemical for embalming bodies.
At last week's Rocklin City Council meeting, Harder offered to hold off performing embalmings at his funeral home for six months while he researches using glutaraldehyde as an alternative to formaldehyde.
This provision was made a condition of his use permit, which was unanimously approved by the council on Aug. 26.
In the meantime, Harder would use another funeral home's facility to embalm bodies when necessary.
"I just don't want to be known as a new business that could possibly hurt children," said Harder, who hopes to open the funeral home in November.
Formaldehyde is a possible carcinogen, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Residents living near the Destiny Drive office complex, where Harder wants to open the funeral home, have opposed the project because it backs up to Antelope Creek Elementary School.
Some have expressed concerns that formaldehyde emissions vented from the embalming preparation room outside would be a health risk to children at the school.
Opponent Mark Crabtree said on Aug. 28, however, that he was pleased with Harder's proposal to use glutaraldehyde instead.
"It is still a chemical that's monitored, but it's not a known carcinogen," Crabtree said. "It doesn't evaporate nearly as much as formaldehyde, so there will be significantly less in the air. It appears to be good."
Harder said he will return to the council next year for approval to use glutaraldehyde embalming methods.
Council members at last week's meeting agreed to waive any fees associated with a second approval.
"There really was no risk at all from the formaldehyde," Mayor Brett Storey said Aug. 28. "Here we've almost handicapped a businessman, and that's not what we're about.
" … People tend to overreact when they hear something bad, and when the science comes back that says it's safer than what we first thought it was, I think that's a significant point."
Earlier in August, the council delayed its decision on the funeral home because a state health official's e-mail raised questions about the cancer risk assessment conducted by the Placer Air Pollution Control District.
Later, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment clarified that it had been given incomplete information and that the funeral home would only pose a greater risk if humans were exposed to a certain level on a long-term basis.
Placer County Senior Air Pollution Control Engineer John Finnell, however, conducted a second analysis that factored in distance and the difference in elevation between the funeral home and school.
The latest results show that the cancer risk is less than one in a million.
Call The Bee's Jennifer K. Morita, (916) 773-7388.
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