WE POLLUTE the planet even when we are dead, and our nearest and dearest will have to pay for it. And it is all the fault of our teeth.

The cost of the average cremation is expected to rise by up to £100 after a government announcement that it wants to halve the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere by crematoria. We are not born with the highly poisonous metal, but accumulate it during life in dental fillings.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that, without action, mercury emissions from crematoria could rise by two thirds by 2020. Body disposal already accounts for 16 per cent of mercury emissions in the UK.

Crematoria must install equipment to cut emissions by half over the next seven years. The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) gave warning yesterday that the furnacemen would inevitably pass on the extra cost to the bereaved. Alan Slater, chief executive of NAFD, said: “Crematorium managers will pass the costs on, but funeral directors will have to address relatives.”

Larry Whitty, the Environment Minister, said: “Our decision strikes a balance between the need to control emissions of a substance which can damage human health and the environment.”

Mercury, which accumulates in air and water, can damage the brain, kidneys, nervous system and unborn children.

Crematoria that install the equipment will be able to sell environmental “credits” to establishments that have neither the room nor the money for the machinery, to help the industry to achieve the target.

This Government thinks of everything, and of ways to control it, but as with most things the matter would eventually correct itself without intervention. Children’s teeth these days are generally healthier than those of their parents. However high the furnace temperatures, the mercury is, in the long term, falling.

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