25 April 2007

PRESS RELEASE

HOUSE OF COMMONS SEMINAR WILL DISCUSS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CREMATION AND BURIAL

The Memorial Awareness Board (MAB), the organisation that campaigns to raise awareness of memorialisation and related issues, will hold a seminar and reception at the House of Commons on Thursday 26th April. The seminar, sponsored by Keith Simpson MP, will discuss the environmental implications of both burial and cremation and how the memorialisation and bereavement industries are responding to the need for change.

There will be two speakers at the event: Dr Ian Hussein, Director of the City of London Cemetery & Crematorium, who will present a paper entitled ‘The Green Case For and Against Burial, and Andrew Mallalieu of Facultatieve Technologies, who will speak on cremation and the environment in his paper ‘Up in Smoke or Six Feet Under’.

Attending the seminar will be cemetery managers, funeral directors, memorial masons and other interested parties.

Mike Dewar, Campaign Director of the Memorial Awareness Board says, “This promises to be a thought provoking event, which will bring together people from all sides of the memorialisation and bereavement industry to discuss how we can continue working toward maintaining better cemeteries in this time of environmental change.”

Tickets for the event are priced at £30.00.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The Memorial Awareness Board (MAB) is a campaigning organisation working to raise awareness of memorialisation issues and to promote the industry.

The MAB Executive Committee comprises memorial masonry wholesalers and retailers, a funeral director, a member of the Institute of Cemetery and Cremation Management and representatives from the Chief Executive and President of the National Association of Memorial Masons.