THIRTY-FIVE funeral homes operating illegally in residential areas in the Corporate Area and putting the health of citizens at risk, are to be served with notices of closure by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie said on Tuesday.

According to the mayor, many funeral homes have sprung up in areas such as Barbican, Havendale, Cassia Park, Harbour View, Richmond Park and Pembroke Hall.

One of the illegal parlours, he said, was located beside a bakery.

McKenzie said many of the 75 funeral homes currently operating in Kingston and St Andrew were doing so illegally and urged them to cooperate with the KSAC for the good of the city.

He said while there were no regulations governing the operations of funeral parlours, public health regulations were being used by the KSAC to prevent them from operating illegally in residential areas.

“The KSAC and the Public Health Department will ensure that citizens of the municipality are protected from an epidemic outbreak. There are no regulations governing the operation of these funeral parlours, and we have to be relying on the powers of the Public Health Department to protect the health of residents of the city to try to regularise this situation,” McKenzie told the council meeting.

Later at a press briefing, the mayor pointed to some of the illegal practices, saying that many of the funeral homes operating in the residential areas “were looking after the dead and disposing of the waste as if it was domestic”. He further stated that the illegal undertakers also used syringes discarded by the hospitals.

“Under public health regulations this is illegal, and exposes the wider population to risk. I have written to the Minister of Health and raised concerns,” he said.

Many of the undertakers, McKenzie disclosed, operated from attache cases and the parlours had no refrigeration.

“After the autopsy they find someone to hold the body at the hospital morgue and the day before the funeral they take the bodies to the funeral homes and relatives come and dress them,” he explained.

On Tuesday, McKenzie bemoaned the fact that there was no public morgue in the city, saying that the public morgue at Producers Road/ Marcus Garvey Drive was closed in 1976 because of “rundown” equipment.

“Kingston is the only city in the world without a public morgue,” he said, insisting that legislation was urgently needed to control the illegal operations.

He pointed out that a proposed Public Health Act of 1997, which would have dealt with the licensing of mortuaries, was not yet enacted.

“With the kind of death rate that we have in this country, there is no proper legislation to ensure that burials are done in an orderly fashion,” he said, adding that he intended to have discussions with all the island’s mayors as it was a national problem.

“I have spoken to the mayor of Spanish Town and he too is concerned about the activities in this area,” he said.

Last month the Funeral Directors Association (FDA) also expressed public health concerns about the operations of some funeral homes. The FDA said that a licensing body for funeral directors needed to be developed.