Heavy metal banned

The UK government has announced it will act to stop the latest chemical menace to our health - the burning of dental fillings.

Apparently, crematoria are responsible for about a sixth of Britain's mercury pollution as fillings vapourise. The government now wants filters added to crematorium chimneys to prevent about half of this pollution escaping into the atmosphere. Environment minister Larry Whitty told the BBC, 'Something must be done. Our decision - on which we consulted widely - strikes a balance between the concerns about cost to crematoria and the need to control emissions of a substance which can damage human health and the environment.'

But crematorium operators are none too happy about all this. Duncan McCallum, secretary of the Federation of British Cremation Authorities, said: 'I think the industry feels it is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.' The filters may not be suitable for many crematoria and won't be cheap.

But this apparent problem has only come about because pollution from mercury elsewhere has been cut so dramatically, making the tiny amount produced in cremation more significant. This presumably comes under the category of Big Problems We Didn't Know We Faced, with the government taking precautions even though there is little evidence that this particular source of mercury is causing any harm. Never mind that the trouble caused may outweigh the original problem - their sense of perspective went up in smoke quite some time ago.

BBC NEWS | Health | Crematoria warned over mercury