HIGH COSTS STUNT CYPRUS CREMATION PLANS

From incyprus  - article 10 April 2017

The unexpectedly high costs of equipment have been blamed for no crematoriums being built in Cyprus, despite parliament approving legislation for cremations almost a year ago.

Funeral home operators had suggested that the state create a crematorium they could purchase services from, amid fears not enough business will be generated to justify the high cost of setting up private facilities.

The operators say cremation furnaces and accompany equipment cost between €4million and €7m and question whether it would be worth their investment since only a hundred requests for cremation have been made in Cyprus.

The funeral home operators also said the legislation also includes very specific conditions in relation to the buildings housing the crematorium, adding to the overall cost of their introducing the service.

Currently, the bodies of people who had wanted to be created are generally sent to Bulgaria, at a cost of around €5,000.

The funeral home operators suggested the best solution would be for the state to build a crematorium which funeral home operators could pay to use and noted the legislation passed last year already includes provisions for this option.

The operators also revealed they had recently been approached by overseas companies offering an alternative to furnace cremation.

This method sees bodies frozen to minus 157 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen.

When the bodies are then returned to an environment with a higher temperature, they turn to ash.

When it comes to cremation, the Czech Republic is the country where the practice is most prevalent with some 70% of the deceased being laid to rest this way.

Next are the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, each with percentages over 50%.

Among other faiths around the world including some other branches of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the Greek Orthodox Church frowns on cremation.

However, Greece broke with a centuries-old Orthodox religious tradition, adopting a law allowing cremation of the dead in 2006 and Cyprus followed last year.