01.25.10
Some Contributing Instances Of CemOps
Having been assigned to troubled locations for a number of years now, and the impact the solutions to those locations had on my personal life experience – I thought it only prudent to share some of these with the readers of this blog.
During the remediation of a cemetery for one of the large corporations, the lack of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment became a serious cause of illness for me. During a disinterment in a cemetery with a considerable amount of limestone and under ground water, in order to communicate with a grounds member I lifted my paper mask. At that very moment, a splash of water was caused by a large rock falling into the grave and splashback of material into my mouth. One year later, I was diagnosed with cancer and the biopsy returned with trace amounts of arsenic and fremaldehyde in the tissue taken. Thus the reason we offer Personal Protective Equipment on our website and we no longer perform such operations without it.
At this point I certainly could have come back on the company, but chose not to. I personally despise those who think the answers to their lives are in the courts with huge settlements, and stayed true to myself and allowed the health insurance to take care of the disease.
At the next large corporation, my reputation was intact for fixing troubled cemetery and crematory locations. During the hiring process, I was interested in clear understandings regarding the identification and solution phases of repairing what was known to be a troubled location. The Chief Operating Officer made it abundantly clear that I was expected to clean up the situation and eliminate all liability from the company for the future. Once it was apparent this could cost the company money in order to correct, the budget was killed and the issues remained.
At the end of this cycle, I had two single spaced pages of unrectified issues the company had no desire to correct. I kept a personal copy of these issues in case it came back to me, and the state ever required an investigation. End result, neither occured.
It was at this time, I realized there was a need for a CemOps. It was at this time, I discovered if the companies didn’t care and the state regulators didn’t care, there was a clear disconnect in what the law stated it required. It was then I realized expectations and enforcement were far apart.
So these issues continue and parties are not brought to accountability until enough families complain or a news agency gets involved.
Those same companies do not respond to efforts to assist with what we know to be problems we can solve. Those same companies have chosen to continue business as usual and not allow outside involvement and help. We continue to offer, with no return to those we know are in desparate need of our assistance.
I can also say to you I have worked for smaller organizations/corporations who have taken these same issues seriously and dedicated the necessary resources to correct issues and insure future occurences do not occur.
Help is here and available to those who wish to take advantage of it.
