By Jennifer Morita
The Rocklin City Council delayed deciding on a proposed funeral home Tuesday night after an e-mail from a state Health Hazard Assessment official indicated that the cancer risk from formaldehyde emissions might be higher than originally estimated.
Council members said they would wait on possible approval of the facility until Placer County Air Pollution Control District senior engineer John Finnell re-checked his calculations.
"I'm willing to defer to the Air Pollution Control District doing further analysis so we can get this right," Storey said.
Ron Harder wants to open Rocklin's first full-service funeral home in an office complex at 6920 Destiny Drive, which backs up to Antelope Creek Elementary School.
Nearby residents have opposed 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 even under the worst-case scenario, the cancer risk is only about one in a million.
Opponent Mark Crabtree, however, contacted the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment which estimated that the cancer risk from long-term exposure would be about 6 per 10,000 based on the highest estimate of formaldehyde concentration.
Call The Bee's Jennifer Morita, (916) 773-7388.
