Dead bodies, disasters, and the myths about them: Is public health law misinformed?

Abstract

While the mission of public health is to fulfill society’s interest in ensuring a healthy society as “public health is what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy,” the mission of public health law is to assist in the creation of those conditions. However, at times of disaster, threats or risks caused by dead bodies often cause dramatic media coverage and public panic, which incite the passage of emergency public health laws. The unfortunate result of such emergency public health laws mandating immediate dead body disposal, often through mass burial, is that proper identification of the deceased is severely hampered, and families are frequently precluded from experiencing the grieving process and are unable to bring closure to such a traumatic event. Are such emergency public health laws misinformed? Are the threats of dead bodies of disasters a threat to the public’s health? Are the perceived public health threats of dead bodies merely a myth—or is their cause for justified concern? Such a rush to burial not only may add to the psychological distress of survivors but it also forbids them the opportunity of seeing their loved ones being treated with dignity and respect. Additional consequence of “emergency” mass burial legislation without proper identification include legal problems associated with inheritance, life insurance, remarriage of spouses, parenting of surviving children, and even the threat of diplomatic tensions between nation states resulting from burial of foreign tourists.
Disaster medicine specialists are often called upon to comment to the media, advise governmental agencies, and console families, as to the disposition of dead bodies and to the existence of any public health threats caused by the accumulation of human cadavers. Because disaster medicine specialists play a vital role in preserving the public’s health, and because public fears of spread of infectious disease often escalate paralleling the accumulation of dead bodies, disaster medicine specialists must be properly informed of the epidemiologic risks and public health issues that dead bodies of disasters may pose. The purpose of this article is to provide a foundation for disaster medicine specialists in properly advising governments, the public, media, and families regarding the risks and fears concerning the health hazards of human cadavers resulting from disasters.