METAL fillings in teeth burned during cremations will soon be creating more pollution than power stations, it has been warned.

Experts predict that crematoria will become the country's biggest mercury polluter within 15 years.

Councils running ten crematoria in the North-East face having to pay up to £1m each to install filter systems to guard against the danger.

The Food Standards Agency said high mercury levels in food were especially dangerous for pregnant women, affecting their baby's central nervous system.

The warning has been sparked by the high level of amalgam fillings fitted to the generation now reaching their 40s and above.

The Government is to call on crematoria to install gas cleaning filters, which cost £265,000 each - and even more to install.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has warned that a quarter of the nation's crematoria may shut because of lack of funding or space to make the necessary conversion.

Councils in the region are waiting for detailed guidelines on how to cope with the problem.

Professor Jimmy Steele, of Newcastle University's School of Dental Sciences, said: "The current 40 to 80-year-olds have got far more teeth and far more fillings than their predecessors, so, per corpse, the mercury level will increase."

Crematoria are expected to account for 35.5 per cent of mercury emissions by 2020 - three times the levels from coal burning. In 1999 the figure was 15.7 per cent.