New treatments that target cancer with radioactive drugs are raising questions about whether they create a health risk for workers who cremate the bodies when the patients die.
In February, doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona published findings in an influential journal of low-level radiation contamination at a crematory that handled the remains of a patient who received one of the new "radiopharmaceutical" treatments.
One month after the cremation, testing revealed traces of radiation in the crematory oven, vacuum filter and bone crusher.
"Certainly, in our case, the dose to the crematory operator was very low. And because the dose was low, the risk is also very low," said Kevin Nelson, a radiation physicist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "But if that person is continually exposed, what happens with the risk? That's where I really think we need additional studies."
In the weeks since the findings appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, some safety experts have stressed that current guidelines for wearing gloves, masks and gowns provide good protection from contamination for crematory workers.
The chance of a cumulative risk seems unlikely, they say, since it would require many deaths within one year of treatment landing at a crematory with no notice of medical history.
"The risk of harm to the crematorium operator is so small that it cannot be measured," said the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in a statement.
Even so, the National Funeral Directors Association said it welcomed further study of the issue. The group noted that crematory operators are supposed to be told whether a body includes pacemakers or radioactive implants.