COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 23 (UPI) -- Ohio authorities have told a funeral home to stop using a new liquid cremation method, an undertaker says.
Edwards Funeral Service of Columbus may be the first in the United States to practice alkaline hydrolysis, which director Jeff Edwards calls "aquamation," The Columbus Dispatch reports.
The process uses heat and lye to liquefy body tissues. The liquid is flushed into the sewers, and the family is given crushed bone fragments.
Edwards said he was about to perform his 20th procedure Thursday when officials told him it "is not an authorized form of disposition of a dead human body."
Jennifer Baugess of the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors said Edwards was told in September that Ohio law would have to be changed to add hydrolysis to burial and cremation as an approved option.
Edwards said he will sue the state to keep offering the procedure.
Alkaline hydrolysis is commonly used to dispose of animal carcasses.
Jessica Koth of the National Funeral Directors Association said it has been gaining ground as an environmentally friendly and cheaper alternative to cremation.
