Economical death (1983)

From the October 1983 issue of the Socialist Standard

From The Guardian, 28 July, 1983:

“The most economical method of disposing of the dead in nuclear war, would be by mass burial", Mr. Alan Bullett, Kent’s deputy surveyor, told the Cremation Society conference at Harrogate yesterday. We should be planning them now. A mass grave of “manageable proportions" would be up to 50 metres long, 4 metres wide, and 2.5 metres deep, to accommodate five layers of 200 bodies — 1000 bodies in all . . . Mr. Bullett drew' some guidance from Ministry of Agriculture advice on the burning of animal carcasses after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease . . . Crematoriums could be used as radiation sickness took its toll. A member of the audience said that bodies needed a hard base for loading into a crematorium. If coffins were not available, a sheet of corrugated iron would do . . . Deaths occurring up to 3.3 miles from the burst would leave 200,000 bodies for disposal, with more to come from radiation sickness. The Government has given local authorities the task of disposal.