537 - Death and Public Health Part II: Environmental Impacts of the Funeral Industry and "Green Burials"
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Traditional after-deathcare in the US carries a huge environmental toll from burying toxic embalming chemicals to the carbon footprint of cremation. Samuel Cline Perry, a licensed mortician, professor of mortuary science, and a deathcare educator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about how the funeral industry is evolving with more options for "green burials." They also discuss new legislation around human composting and why social justice is a key aspect of the larger conversation of green deathcare.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:17.0 | and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore. |
| 0:19.7 | Our goal is to bring evidence and experience to illuminate critical public health issues. |
| 0:25.4 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhh.edu. |
| 0:31.5 | That's public health question at jh.hu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:38.4 | Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer of Public Health on Call. |
| 0:42.5 | Death may seem like the antithesis to public health, but as Dr. Sandra Galeo, Boston University |
| 0:48.6 | School Public Health Dean once said, the data is clear. |
| 0:52.6 | 100% of us will die. In a two-part series, death in public health, |
| 0:57.9 | we'll be exploring the end of life as a public health issue. Today, in part two, I talk with |
| 1:03.9 | Samuel Klein Perry, a licensed mortician, professor of mortuary science, and a death care educator |
| 1:10.2 | at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, |
| 1:12.8 | about the environmental impacts of green services and options for greener burials. |
| 1:17.9 | We discussed the green funeral industry, changing legislation around practices, |
| 1:23.2 | and why social justice is key to the larger conversation of green death care. |
| 1:28.7 | Let's listen. |
| 1:30.7 | Samuel Klein Perry, thank you so much for joining us today on public health on call. |
| 1:35.5 | You are an expert in green funeral services. |
| 1:39.6 | So tell us a little bit about that. |
| 1:42.1 | Yeah, thank you for having me, Lindsay. |
| 1:44.1 | I have been studying green funeral services since about 2010. |
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