Heritage Funeral Home Allegations Unproven says Owner

"They have no proof and nobody has come to inspect our premises so they can verify that we do not do embalming on our premises as alleged in the Putnam County Department of Health letter dated April 25, 2008," says Agnes Powe, one of the owners of the Heritage Funeral Home located in Putnam Valley.

PCN&R obtained a copy of this letter through the Freedom of Information Act from the Putnam Valley Town Clerk. The letter states "To whom it may concern: this Department has received a complaint that your facility, Heritage Funeral Home is discharging the waste from the embalming process into the septic system serving your facility. Industrial discharge such as this requires approval from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation." The letter goes on to inform "To whom it may concern," what they believe to be "the best way to handle this is to separate the wastes. The existing septic system must be used for sanitary waste only and the waste from the embalming process must be separated and held for disposal by a medical waste hauler."

In another paragraph the letter states, "You may also consider having all the embalming completed at another facility that meets these requirements."

That is exactly what Agnes Powe says they do and have done for the past seven to eight years. When questioned about embalming she explained that their contractor, a gentlemen named Shawn O'Mara who is the owner of "All County Funeral Service" in Hawthorne, New York, picks up the deceased body directly from the hospital, nursing home or wherever it is and performs the embalming process at his facility in Hawthorne. The embalmed body, ready for cosmetic preparation, is then delivered to the Heritage Funeral Home.

In a conversation with Mr. O'Mara last Sunday evening he confirmed exactly what Mrs. Powe had said and he added, "If they are so concerned, what about the bodies buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in pine boxes? The box and the bodies decompose into the ground." He also stated that at a Funeral Directors' conference they said in some cases where the deceased died from AIDS they still found active HIV viruses for some time after the person was buried. Mr. O'Mara also owns a funeral home and they operate like all the other funeral homes, with the proper licenses. He can't understand why they are picking on the Heritage Funeral Home.

Neither can the Powe's attorney who has filed a reply with the Department of Health asking for the basis for these allegations.

In a discussion with Putnam Valley Supervisor Bob Tendy about this situation, he stated that in January of 2008 the Town's Fire Inspector did a routine annual inspection of the premises and when he came upon the prep room he saw the embalming equipment and asked Ron Powe what that was for. Mr. Powe apparently answered that it was for embalming. The Fire Inspector so noted that in his report and filed a copy with the Putnam County Department of Health.

Mr. Powe did not fill in the details as his wife Agnes Powe has, that they do not embalm on the premises and have not done so for approximately eight years, and they do not store any embalming fluid on the premises; Mrs. Powe said it is a very expensive product.

However, what has upset Mrs. Powe is that someone is freely circulating the April 25, 2008 letter and by doing so inferring that the Heritage Funeral Home is contaminating the ground around the Funeral Home with embalming fluid. This is absolutely not true says Powe. In my conversations with both Agnes Powe and Shawn O'Mara they both explained the embalming process and the use of the embalming machine. They said the machine is carefully designed to not waste this expensive and highly carcinogenic fluid.

Research shows that "embalming fluid is a compound of 5 to 29 percent formaldehyde, and methanol, ethanol, and other solvents. Effects from exposure to embalming fluid include: bronchitis, body tissue destruction, brain damage, lung damage, impaired coordination, and inflammation and sores in the throat, nose, and esophagus. It is extremely carcinogenic."

The use of embalming fluid and the embalming process is not something the Powes want to contend with at their business. They consider the allegations as being made by someone who does not understand the embalming process.