Graves in Northern Ireland Are Leaking Carcinogenic Chemicals Into Groundwater

Forget zombies, the dead of Northern Ireland are seriously endangering the living through the toxic chemicals used to clean their bodies.

Coffins cheaply and incorrectly buried have become flooded leaking cacinogenic chemicals such as formaldehyde and ammonia into the groundwater.

A gravedigger known only as Dermot told the Belfast Telegraph: ‘To give you an idea of the extent of the water issue, one person who was being buried was over 33 stone [460 pounds] in weight and after we had laid her to rest in the grave, we allowed [time] for the family to leave.

‘When we came back to fill it in, the woman in the coffin was floating in her grave in approximately four or five feet of water. That's how bad things were.’

Dermot added: ‘The water in the graves seriously affects the coffins already buried. Coffins are not watertight so when the grave fills with water it also fills the coffin, which decomposes and rots the bodies faster.

‘In my opinion this is where the water mixes with the body and embalming fluids.’

This has been as a bigger issue in Ireland as it a common practice to have open coffins at funerals demanding higher quantities of embalming fluids and chemicals.

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The founder of Greenacre Innovations, a specialist company in burial technologies told Vice: ‘Not enough investigation has been carried out in this sensitive area.

‘Contrary to being told it dissipates over time, [formaldehyde] actually merely dilutes, leaving the highly probable conclusion that some percentage of this carcinogen toxin may well make its way into some of our ground water source.’