In August 2021, WorkSafe issued InvoCare with an 'improvement notice' after the company admitted it did not have an effective nationwide system in place to monitor the health of its mortuary workers. InvoCare confirmed some of its testing results were "above" recommended safety thresholds but "corrective actions" have since been put in place. These may include specialist air ventilation systems, use of PPE and respiratory masks and health and exposure monitoring. The ASX-listed InvoCare, which runs 40 funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries employing 262 staff, was warned more than a year ago that workers at three of its 15 mortuaries had been exposed to nearly twice the recommended safe level of formaldehyde while embalming, according to internal documents seen by RNZ.įormaldehyde, one of several toxic chemicals found in embalming fluids, can irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat while longer-term exposure can cause myeloid leukaemia and rare cancers.īecause of the dangers, mortuaries must put in controls to reduce the exposure risk. InvoCare says it cannot give staff their individual testing results, but one embalmer says he wants to know if he's been personally exposed to the carcinogen. Photo: RNZ / Robert Whitaker and 123RF Some mortuary workers at the country's largest funeral home operator were exposed to potentially dangerous amounts of formaldehyde. The embalming fluid used by mortuary workers typically includes formaldehyde, which requires careful management to mitigate the risks to a person's health.
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