The National Cancer Institute has confirmed what most Funeral directors are informally aware of -that funeral directors and embalmers are at high risk for  cancer: specifically brain cancer and myeloid leukemia

High exposure to formaldehyde means cancer in your life.
Here is a summary from Oxford Journals

CONTEXT AND CAVEATS

Prior knowledge

More deaths than expected among anatomists, pathologists, and funeral industry workers have been attributed to lymphohematopoietic malignancies, in particular myeloid leukemia, and brain cancer. Individuals in these fields may have worked with formaldehyde.

Study design

In a case–control study in a cohort of deceased funeral industry workers, those who died from lymphohematopoietic malignancies and brain tumors were compared with control subjects. Lifetime work practices and exposures to formaldehyde were obtained by interviews with next of kin and coworkers.

Contribution

The number of years of embalming practice and related formaldehyde exposures in the funeral industry was associated with statistically significantly increased mortality from myeloid leukemia. No associations were observed with other lymphohematopoietic malignancies. Associations with brain cancer were unclear.

Implications

Further studies are warranted to investigate the risk of leukemia in relation to specific embalming practices and exposures and to investigate this risk in other groups of professionals who are exposed to formaldehyde and have an increased risk of leukemia (ie, anatomists and pathologists).

Limitations

Exposures to formaldehyde were obtained from interviews with next of kin and coworkers. There were relatively few deaths from myeloid leukemia among case subjects. There was a considerable amount of missing data that required imputation for analyses.

From the Editors.

via jnci.oxfordjournals.org

This is certainly a very high funeral cost, cancer

Funeral industry\ funeral blog by R. Brian Burkhardt

Your Funeral Guy R.Brian Burkhardt is a funeral director in Illinois and Virginia. He author of the acclaimed funeral consumer guide on funeral cost Rest in Peace  R. Brian Burkhardt is a Funeral Director in Illinois and Virginia. He is the author of Rest in peace insiders Tiops to the Low Cost less Stress Funeral.

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