Grey area over what is in cremation ashes

WHILE your report on the crematorium at Rocky Island (Irish Examiner, November 30) was most informative in some ways, in another way it only added to a puzzle.

After cremation, most people believe they are getting back the ashes of the deceased. But are they? Your report stated: “When cremation is finished, all that is left is a small amount of bone.” That bone is then placed “in a machine which reduces the bone to ashes”.

Since bone alone, when calcinated, forms a white powder, rather than the grey ashes usually returned to the next of kin, then what exactly is returned?