California Crime & Trauma Scene Cleanup

Bio-Recovery: The R&R Interview

2010-07-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

by Jeffrey Stouffer editor
July 19, 2010

A continually evolving and expanding segment of the remediation industry, bio-recovery – better known as “crime scene cleanup” or “trauma cleaning” – has made great strides since it first came into being as an organized segment of the business almost two decades ago. Recently, R&R spoke with Kent Berg, director of the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists and founder of the American Bio-Recovery Association, to get his take on where the industry stands today and where it’s headed in the future.

Restoration & Remediation: Briefly, what falls under the scope of work when people talk about “bio-recovery”?

Kent Berg: Bio-recovery is actually a term that was derived from the words BioHazard Cleanup and Scene Recovery. We chose that term because our industry’s scope of work is actually much broader than cleaning crime scenes. We are often thought of as the guys that will clean up anything that is nasty, repulsive, or gross, so people naturally call us to clean up human feces, animal feces, dead animals – usually rotten ones – and gross filth, as in rotting food, poor hygiene, and piles and piles of garbage. Then there’s the decomposed human body scenes, meth labs, the occasional disease outbreak, and anything else that would cause a normal person to stay a hundred feet away to keep from puking.

R&R: You’ve been part of the bio-recovery profession pretty much since before it became a profession. Since that time, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen, both positive and negative?

KB: When I first started, very few people in this business knew anything about cleaning and disinfecting. They just wanted to make the visible contamination go away. No one in the insurance industry had ever heard of a crime scene cleanup company, and many adjusters argued that our services were not covered. Today, the biggest changes have been in our profile. What I mean by that is the public, who had never heard of our services, now see us in TV shows, documentaries, movies, magazines, and newspaper articles. We have recognition now, and families are more aware that these services exist.

Another change has been in the performance of the cleanup itself. We as an industry are much more aware of the antimicrobials we are using, the techniques and knowledge related to home construction, vehicle dismantling, and being able to actually render a property safe on a microscopic level.

R&R: From a purely objective point of view, bio-recovery would seem to be about as “recession-proof” as any remediation specialty out there. There will always be accidents, suicides and other traumas that require a professional remediator. What are some of the pros and cons that come along with that?

KB: We know that our services will always be needed, but with a higher profile, we are seeing more and more companies starting up, and more and more fire/water restoration companies adding this service to their menus. Although the demand for our services is increasing, the individual companies’ call volumes aren’t growing as fast because there is more competition for that finite number of incidents.

The pros are that the public will have resources to respond if they need them, and that companies will have to step up their game in service quality and marketing. The cons are that the majority of these new companies are not attending training, not getting any type of certification beyond a half-day OSHA bloodborne pathogen course. It’s these companies that are dragging the good companies down when the public hears about a company throwing a bloody mattress in a dumpster, etc.

R&R: Since hindsight is 20/20, if there was one thing you would go back and change, as far as how you operated your business, what is it, and what would you do differently?

KB: I would have marketed harder. I assumed that people would need my service and seek me out. That was true for a while, but when competitors popped up with their marketing programs, the public chose who was freshest in their minds. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but one I will never forget.

R&R: Technologically speaking, what areas have seen the greatest advances? Chemicals? PPE? Containment?

KB: One of the advancements has been our recognition as a legitimate industry. Today, vendors of specialty restoration products are targeting our industry. Kimberly-Clark markets their suits with the “Recommended by the American Bio-Recovery Association” seal on them. Other products used in our industry have similar tie-ins with our trade association or at the very least mention in their advertising that their product is great for cleaning crime and trauma scenes. Even the insurance industry no longer recognizes us under their “janitorial service” heading, opting now for a “crime scene cleanup” designation for insurance coverage.

We are also seeing new technology in the form of new disinfectants, odor-remediation technology, and devices to actually measure how clean a surface really is. The National Organization for Victim Assistance is putting on a training program this fall for teaching all interested bio-recovery technicians how to better interact with victims and their families. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has sought out input so they may better understand our industry.

However, I believe the most important advancement for the industry has been the formation of training centers. Legitimate training programs help make sure that any technician who wants to be the best at their profession can attend a school that specializes in that field. By establishing a standard training and certification program, students graduate far ahead of their competitors and benefit from years of experience from seasoned industry professionals, scientists, chemists, and pathologists that helped to design the curriculum.

Jeffrey Stouffer editor
stoufferj@bnpmedia.com

Jeffrey Stouffer is editor of Restoration & Remediation magazine

6 reasons why people commit suicide

2010-06-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

by Alex Lickerman, MD

Though I’ve never lost a friend or family member to suicide, I have lost a patient.

I have known a number of people left behind by the suicide of people close to them, however. Given how much losing my patient affected me, I’ve only been able to guess at the devastation these people have experienced. Pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret makes for a bitter drink, the taste of which I’ve seen take many months or even years to wash out of some mouths.

The one question everyone has asked without exception, that they ache to have answered more than any other, is simply, why?

Why did their friend, child, parent, spouse, or sibling take their own life? Even when a note explaining the reasons is found, lingering questions usually remain: yes, they felt enough despair to want to die, but why did they feel that? A person’s suicide often takes the people it leaves behind by surprise (only accentuating survivor’s guilt for failing to see it coming).

People who’ve survived suicide attempts have reported wanting not so much to die as to stop living, a strange dichotomy but a valid one nevertheless. If some in-between state existed, some other alternative to death, I suspect many suicidal people would take it. For the sake of all those reading this who might have been left behind by someone’s suicide, I wanted to describe how I was trained to think about the reasons people kill themselves. They’re not as intuitive as most think.

In general, people try to kill themselves for six reasons:

1. They’re depressed. This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would all be better off without me” to make rational sense. They shouldn’t be blamed for falling prey to such distorted thoughts any more than a heart patient should be blamed for experiencing chest pain: it’s simply the nature of their disease.

Because depression, as we all know, is almost always treatable, we should all seek to recognize its presence in our close friends and loved ones. Often people suffer with it silently, planning suicide without anyone ever knowing. Despite making both parties uncomfortable, inquiring directly about suicidal thoughts in my experience almost always yields an honest response. If you suspect someone might be depressed, don’t allow your tendency to deny the possibility of suicidal ideation prevent you from asking about it.

2. They’re psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression — and arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is 1% and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfill their original promise.

Schizophrenics are just as likely to talk freely about the voices commanding them to kill themselves as not, and also, in my experience, give honest answers about thoughts of suicide when asked directly. Psychosis, too, is treatable, and usually must be for a schizophrenic to be able to function at all. Untreated or poorly treated psychosis almost always requires hospital admission to a locked ward until the voices lose their commanding power.

3. They’re impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is usually genuine, and whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime. Hospital admission is therefore not usually indicated. Substance abuse and the underlying reasons for it are generally a greater concern in these people and should be addressed as aggressively as possible.

4. They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don’t believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don’t think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who’s hurt them—but are sometimes tragically misinformed. The prototypical example of this is a young teenage girl suffering genuine angst because of a relationship, either with a friend, boyfriend, or parent who swallows a bottle of Tylenol—not realizing that in high enough doses Tylenol causes irreversible liver damage.

I’ve watched more than one teenager die a horrible death in an ICU days after such an ingestion when remorse has already cured them of their desire to die and their true goal of alerting those close to them of their distress has been achieved.

5. They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death. They often look at their choice to commit suicide as a way to shorten a dying that will happen regardless. In my personal view, if such people are evaluated by a qualified professional who can reliably exclude the other possibilities for why suicide is desired, these people should be allowed to die at their own hands.

6. They’ve made a mistake. This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defense against this, it seems to me, is education.

The wounds suicide leaves in the lives of those left behind by it are often deep and long lasting. The apparent senselessness of suicide often fuels the most significant pain survivors feel. Thinking we all deal better with tragedy when we understand its underpinnings, I’ve offered the preceding paragraphs in hopes that anyone reading this who’s been left behind by a suicide might be able to more easily find a way to move on, to relinquish their guilt and anger, and find closure. Despite the abrupt way you may have been left, those don’t have to be the only two emotions you’re doomed to feel about the one who left you.

Alex Lickerman is an internal medicine physician at the University of Chicago who blogs at Happiness in this World.

Violent crimes happen every day; sometimes leaving behind a brutal mess.

2010-05-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Violent crimes happen every day; sometimes leaving behind a brutal mess.

When the investigation is over, whose job is it to clean it up?

It’s not your ordinary cleaning job, nor your average clients and not for the faint of heart.

80-year-old Walter Eastwood was beaten and robbed during a frightening home invasion earlier this month. Three men broke into Eastwood’s home, beat him, tied him up and stole thousands of dollars and jewelry from his safe. The attack left blood stains on the couch and floor as painful reminders of a brutal attack.

The criminals ran off leaving Eastwood and his wife emotionally scarred and their home a bloody mess. That's where crime scene cleaners come into play.

CBS47 talked with crime scene cleaner Paul Duvivier. Duvivier said, "Blood and body fluids contain lots and lots, over 250diff bacteria and viruses."

It's gruesome work but when a violent crime occurs and someone has to clean up the blood and body fluids the right way. "Somebody untrained, the guy with a mop bucket and bottle of bleach unfortunately that doesn't do it, Duvivier said.

In the Eastwood's case, the left over blood in the carpet may seem like small stains but what lies beneath is hazardous and can be a heath risk. “We will be removing a great deal of the carpet checking out underneath the carpet and treat the cement that's underneath that,” said Duvivier.

Duvivier sees himself as more than cleaning man; he's part of the healing process, helping families get thought emotionally hard times. Duvivier said, “They have gone through something that was tragic or horrendous for them and we want the help them."

It's a tough job. Duvivier works with families that have experienced suicides, murders, and violent accident scenes… it's more than most people can handle. Duvivier said, "What a horrendous situation where a family has to be the ones cleaning up a relative."

Duvivier and his team understand a family needs help that few can provide. It's more than just clean up; it's a shoulder to cry on, or setting up a place to stay while the painful memories are washed away.

After removing and disposing all the heartbreaking signs of the attack, the Eastwood family can finally feel comfortable going back into their home, even if memories of the attack remain.

Death rides a pale horse and these guys ride in a pale van, cleaning up after him.

2010-05-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

By John Guenther

It's getting late on Michael Nicholson's driveway, when Nicholson's friend and employee Johnny Grant asks if he'd seen the show "1,000 Ways To Die." Nicholson responds that he doesn't watch TV. They're standing next to the Clean Scene Services van which is packed with cleaning equipment and bio-hazard containers.

The two are on call 24/7 and their job is to clean and disinfect the things other people aren't willing to, from mold to the aftereffects of a shotgun suicide.

When asked what it's like waiting for death night and day, Nicholson said he's more concerned with assisting the families left behind.

"Pretty much it's not that we're waiting for it to happen. It's happening all the time," said Nicholson. "It's just whether or not we'll be there to be able to help them."

A few nights earlier, inside the Clean Scene offices on Valley Boulevard, owner-operator Nicholson described each one of photos of past jobs hanging on the wall: train crashes, suicides and car accidents. News stories profiling Clean Scene with headlines like "The Death Squads" hang on another wall. Nicholson said the building used to be the clubhouse and meth lab of the Mongols motorcycle club.

Even though every job they do does not involve death, it seems it is always not too far away. The building space next to Clean Scene is taken up by an artist who fabricates couches out of caskets.

Nicholson got started in the industry while picking up bodies for the L.A. County Coroner's office which he did since he was 17. While doing pickups, people would ask him about who was going clean up once they were gone. Nicholson and his friends started coming back and providing cleaning services as a side job.

"It was rewarding as far as helping people," Nicholson said. "But if there was no money in it, we wouldn't have kept doing it, I'll tell you that."

After 14 years in business, he said he now charges a minimum of around $1,000 per job, depending on damage done and size of the cleanup area. But for labor-intensive jobs their services can cost between $4,000 and $6,000, especially for one of those shotgun jobs which can run well into the night. Nicholson describes the blast as similar to a bomb going off, with remains even landing two rooms away.

Grant said his salary is "kind of hourly," working as a trauma scene technician for Clean Scene. When asked about waiting for something terrible to happen, he agreed with Nicholson's assessment.

"Actually this is L.A.," Grant said. "There's like 20 million plus people here. There usually isn't a whole lot of waiting."

The Los Angeles County vital records office estimates that there were 53,794 deaths in the county in 2009, not including Long Beach or Pasadena. Around 42 percent of those occurred from dusk until dawn or 6PM to 5AM.

Nicholson said his business has an up-and-down cycle with more jobs coming in during the summer.

"Bodies decompose in the quicker in the summer in the heat, said Nicholson." More people are out. There's more action."

When asked about working nighttime jobs, he said there's a similar pattern.

"Sometimes, it'll be four times and we have a month where we don't go out at all at night."

The types of jobs that drag the Clean Scene crew out at night include train and car accidents which require their services in order to get the trains and traffic running again.

Grant said their job cleaning up after shootings can get a lot more interesting in certain parts of the city at night. "It depends on what happened down there and who's watching you clean up the mess," he added. "Sometimes it almost appears that the ones watching are the ones who committed the crime."

"There are a lot more nuts at night," Nicholson simply said.

"We've had calls that are just mundane but because it's at night, it's actually scary." said Carol Nicholson, wife of Michael and who started the business with him out of the back of their Toyota. "You're in places you don't know and with people you don't know."

Carol Nicholson is now the office manager for the company. Sitting in her office in their Agua Dulce home and surrounded by pictures of family and hazardous material cleanup manuals, she said they've talked about moving the service in other states and cities but decided against it.

"L.A.'s the place to be," she added. "The people here are one of a kind. At nighttime, the city comes alive and you see people that you ordinarily don't see especially in this type of work."

One nighttime job that seems to have gained a legendary status among the family is a suicide which took place in a sporting goods store. A homeless man came in to the store, asked to see a shotgun, loaded it with his own bullet and shot himself. The first Clean Scene crew on site had to work all night, call in reinforcements later on and hire a truck to haul the huge amount of damaged merchandise away.

"It was just spread out so bad and there was so much merchandise affected," said Michael Nicholson. "They had their loss prevention people there and deciding what level they wanted to do things. They actually opened [the store] before it was completed. They all do that."
The job even inspired an opening scene in the 2008 movie "Sunshine Cleaning" which featured a family that got into the same business. Michael Nicholson said it goes vice versa and Hollywood sometimes inspires real life in the industry.

"Every time a movie comes out, there's always a few new companies," he said. "'The Cleaner,' 'Sunshine Cleaning.' Any of those movies. But most of them are not very long-lasting."

When people ask about his job, Michael Nicholson said they often ask if it's like "CSI." He said TV shows usually get things mostly right since the shows tend to have crime scene advisers, something his company has done before. But, like most entertainment, it's a little off from reality. "To me it's just not real," he commented.

Carol Nicholson said the crime scene cleanup characters in movies are often portrayed negatively and are based on Michael. "It's not based on me," retorted Michael Nicholson.

"When you're watching it, you know they're talking about Michael and he's always portrayed as an asshole," said Carol Nicholson. "It never fails."

Michael Nicholson reconsidered a moment and said, "I must be an asshole," and laughed.

Because of the on call nature of the business, the Nicholsons have found that making personal plans is like tempting fate.

"When you're ready and willing, nothing will happen," said Michael Nicholson. "As soon as you start doing something and get occupied...that's when you'll get a call at night."

The calls can affect not only their outlook on life and death but their social lives as well.

"People think we're flaky because they'll invite us to parties or invite us somewhere and we can't make it because--guarantee it--that's when the phone rings," said Carol Nicholson.

Carol added that nighttime is when the prank calls come rolling in. She said they can tell most calls are bogus right off the bat. But she said she is fully expecting someone to force them onto a dry run call. "They'll give us an address...and when we show up, they'll be off in the corner laughing at us."

"I've had people call up and say 'I'm going to kill somebody,'" said Michael Nicholson. "'Can you come clean it?' Just stupid stuff really."

Despite the uneven schedule and pranksters, the Nicholsons and crewmembers recognize they have an opportunity to provide some aid to those going through a trying time.

"We found people that have been looking for days for someone to help them and then when they finally find us, they're very relieved," said Michael Nicholson.

He recounted how, on their second job ever, they were called in to clean the living room of a man who had committed suicide on a couch. His daughter could not make herself enter the house. It wasn't until the crew finished when the woman was comfortable enough to come in and sit in the living room. Carol Nicholson said they aren't necessarily leaving grieving clients happy, but at least ready to take care of what's next.

Grant said what happens to clients once the crews finish a job does go across his mind from time to time. But Grant mostly has a yeoman's attitude towards the rewards of the job.

"The reward is just getting the job done right and not having to go back and not having anybody complaining and not having people feel like they've been ripped off," said Grant.

When asked about passing on lessons to those without the stomach for the job, he became more practical than philosophical for a moment.

"Maybe how to clean stains once in awhile," he joked. "That could come in handy."

After completing a job at night, Michael Nicholson said he usually is just looking forward to getting something to eat. But he also has thought about how most people are unaware of a lot of what happens while they sleep.

"We'll be finishing up a job just as the sun is coming up and traffic starting to come back starting to come out for the morning and you think that they don't even know what happened prior to them getting out there this morning," he said.

Carol Nicholson said the whole experience of working the trauma scene beat has left her sometimes feeling apart from other moms at her children's school.

"I'm nothing like them because of what we deal with," she said. While talking about certain stores where their crews have worked, she has a distinctly different perspective from others. "All I can see is brains in sporting goods."

But she believes her children have ultimately benefited from the family business, and not just financially. She said all of their children have been very aware of that they do.

"Most kids think about death whenever a loved one dies and they go to a funeral and they have to be explained what is death," she said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. "My kids grow up knowing that death is just there."

Their 20-year-old son has been working with them for a couple years and has joined one of the crews full-time. Michael Nicholson has found an additional benefit to the arrangement: He now has someone who can go out at night.

"He can't wait until his dad retires so he can take over," Carol Nicholson mentions. "The littlest one is eight and he can't wait to be at his dad's side in the Clean Scene van."

As I drove away from the Nicholsons' house and down a winding darkened road toward the lights of L.A., a small, furry rodent darted in front of my car, far too close for me to avoid it. The unfortunate meeting of car and animal reminded me of something Michael Nicholson said back at his office.

"Life's very valuable...precious and you never know what will happen. We've taught our kids that. There's no guarantees that you'll be here tomorrow. Nobody's promised tomorrow and a lot of people don't get it."

Companies tackle mess a corpse can leave behind

2009-10-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

Published on October 1, 2009
Angie's List
by Staci Giordullo

What happens to those who die alone — and no one notices? Welcome to the business of biohazard remediation. Originally limited to crime and trauma scene cleaning, the industry's scope has grown to include decontamination of homes soiled by human waste, tissue and body fluids, and other toxins associated with a decomposing body.

Ronald Gospodarski, owner of Bio-Recovery Corp. in New York City, started his business in 1988 after spending years as a paramedic and realizing no company was offering these types of services.

"No one is prepared for this type of thing," he says. "I come in and solve the problem."

According to Gospodarski, approximately 75 percent of his business is cleaning up after decompositions.

"I get calls from family, police, landlords — a lot of times it's the property manager," he says.

Stacie Salerno of Bradford, Pa., recently hired Gospodarski to clean her brother's apartment after he was stabbed to death, reportedly by a stranger police believe he likely met online. "I never knew this kind of company even existed," Salerno says. "But they took care of everything. You never would know there was a murder in that apartment."

Like many other industries, the prerequisites to be a bio-recovery technician vary greatly by state. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires proper training in order to handle blood-borne pathogens. In addition, companies should hold the proper permits for biohazard waste disposal as well as general liability and pollution liability insurance.

What happens to those who die alone? Welcome to the business of biohazard remediation. See examples of biohazard remediation >>Dale Cillian, president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, says the lack of a nationwide standard is unnerving because there are companies that grossly overcharge customers and don't thoroughly clean or properly dispose of the waste.

"Some of these companies will rob people blind," Cillian says. "They're hurting families at the worst time of their lives." Gospodarski, who's certified with the ABRA, agrees and says his average job costs between $1,500 and $3,500. "Customers need to do their due diligence before hiring a company like mine," he says.

Industry experts recommend verifying companies with ABRA — which has 80 members — Angie's List and the BBB.

While a coroner typically removes the body before the biohazard remediation team arrives, there are a number of threats left behind — many of which go unnoticed by the untrained eye.

"We see marks of contamination affected during the removal of the body such as fluid from the body bag touching walls and furniture," says John DiGulio, co-founder of USA Decon in Houston. "Light switches and door handles are usually left unclean."

Hiring a professional to clean up such a mess can lift an emotional burden from grieving family members. "There aren't many jobs in which you can provide unimaginable relief for someone," DiGulio says.

Originally limited to crime and trauma scene cleaning, the scope of biohazard remediation has grown to include the cleanup and decontamination associated with mold, human waste, tissue and body fluids, animal waste and other toxins.

If a body is left undiscovered in a home for any period of time, a bio-recovery technician is needed to remove the unpleasant consequences of that decomposition.

Tenants offered way out of troubled building

2009-10-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

OAKLAND, CA (KGO) -- The repairs are finished at an East Oakland apartment complex which was the scene of a long police standoff last week. It is the same building where two Oakland police officers were gunned down this spring.

The crime scene clean-up crews were back Thursday, trying to remove the lingering stench of tear gas.

As if the history of the building is not bad enough, the property is now in foreclosure. The bank that owns it says the cleanup is complete and that residents can return. But many do not want to.

The 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard apartment building is the same place where Oakland SWAT team members Sergeant Ervin Romans and Sergeant Daniel Sakai were killed in a shootout with Lovell Mixon March 21, 2009. The shootout came after Mixon had killed Oakland Police Officer John Hege and Sergeant Mark Dunakin during a traffic stop earlier that day.

Just last week, police put the building on a 12-hour lockdown during a standoff with a shooting suspect who they say hid inside the apartment. Police ransacked units searching for the gunman. Residents were forced to move out.

"It's too many incidents," displaced tenant Bernard Hampton said. "That's the second shooting over there and there aint no telling what else might happen over there."
Tamalpais Bank says it will pay for a three week hotel stay so tenants can find other living arrangements. A bank spokesperson said, "Whether we get a reimbursement from the city or not...just morally speaking this is the right thing to do to get people back on their feet."

It turns out the city may not have to pick up the final tab for damages caused by the police raid or the inconvenience it caused tenants, who have been living in a hotel ever since.

A police department spokesman told ABC7, "In many instances...the city or county cannot be held liable for damage based on qualified immunity (public safety personnel lawfully performing their duties)."

Tenants like Tamesisha Marbray and her new born daughter feel stuck in the middle.
"It's a dark cloud over the building," Marbray said. "Two times is enough, the third time, bullets fly anywhere, go through wall, you know we're all in there, unsafe basically."

Tenants say they are unsafe in part because the man at the center of the standoff, accused of shooting another man around the corner, has been released from custody because the victim is refusing to cooperate with investigators.

2009-08-07T09:24:00.001-07:00

The Final Scene

2009-07-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

A Rancho Cucamonga company pioneers the science—and emotional art—of cleaning up a crime scene

By: Nate Jackson

On his hands and knees, clothed head-to-toe in biohazard gear, Chris King uses a white rag to mop up a puddle of viscous red/brown blood clots and pink spinal fluid from the floor of an Anaheim garage. It’s 9:30PM on a summer Sunday; the temperature is still only in the 70s. King is a native of Upland, a former restaurant server. Sweat forms rivulets from his scalp, drips off his clear protective face mask, onto the concrete floor, mingling with the muck and ooze, which harbors a stale perfume of iron and rotting fruit.

“You have to work in stages so you don’t miss anything,” says King, working in tight circles, tossing each sopping red rag into a biohazard waste bin. He rarely looks up at his clients, three mid-sized men standing sullenly amid the usual flotsam and jetsam of a California garage— clothing racks, a treadmill, two bicycles, yellow and pink, leaning against a book shelf. Tonight they have improbably lost a family member—a father of three young children who had fatally shot himself in the head several hours earlier.

For King and the crew at Crime Scene Steri-Clean, cleaning up the worst remnants of human nature is a way of life. But after 15 years in business, these pioneers of the private crime scene/ biohazard disposal industry believe that their ability to handle both the physical mess and emotional wreckage of everyday tragedy is what continues to keep them unique—and in business.

“Who’s gonna clean this?”
“That’s the hardest part, having to see [clients] going through such a painful situation,” whispers King behind the company van after offering a second round of condolences to the men inspecting his work. Next to body decompositions, suicide clean ups are the most common. Three years after finding the job on a Craigslist posting, King can still remember the details of every clean up he’s ever done; suicides, murders, rat-infested houses.

Founded in 1995 by husband and wife Cory and Tammy Chalmers, Rancho Cucamonga-based CSSC is probably one of the last businesses you would think even existed. That is, until you need them.

Servicing over 30 cities including most of the Inland Empire, L.A., Orange County and parts of Northern California, the 24-hour clean up crew handles everything from blood and brain matter, to body decompositions and cluttered houses that would send an ordinary maid service screaming for the hills.

As CEO of the company, Chalmers and his wife, the company’s CFO, have laid enough ground work with surrounding CHP, fire department and law enforcement agencies to ensure that they’re never short on calls. At this point, getting woken up by a call of a car accident, a shooting or a stabbing is nothing new.

Besides doing his part to run the company, Chalmers is also a firefighter for the city of Garden Grove. But it was what he saw before that—during his days as a paramedic, running in and out of grisly scenes and leaving families to clean up the mess—that inspired him to start a side business.

“I would see the family all distraught and crying and emotional,” he recalls. “And I wondered: Who’s gonna clean this?”

One haunting scene finally inspired him to go home to his wife and propose the idea of a crime scene clean up company. He had walked into a bathroom where a man with hemophilia had committed suicide with a shot gun.

“You couldn’t see any of the tile floor,” says Chalmers, who remembers standing in front of a lake of red and violence splattered on the walls. The sound of the man’s wife screaming hysterically in front of the house added to the horror. He knew once the police and paramedics left with the body, she would be left to clean the bathroom.

A decade and a half later, CSSC finds itself in an industry bordering on over-saturation in California. They are now one of 315 crime scene clean up companies in the state.

“There’s not enough business to go around,’ says Cory Chalmers, adding that many of these newly-licensed companies tend to cycle out of business in six months because the inability to snag consistent work.

“It’s not like you can just advertise in the yellow pages and people will call you,” he says. “Who thinks when their mom kills herself to grab the yellow pages? Nobody.”

So how does CSSC continue thriving in the midst of so many fly-by-night companies? Several years ago, Tammy Chalmers took a step that changed the face of the company from blood scrubbing vendor to viable resource.

Using her expertise in the field of bloodborne pathogens and hoarders (or pack rats), Tammy Chalmers teaches free classes to law enforcement and firefighters on how to effectively protect themselves against blood-transmitted diseases like hepatitis and other biohazard on behalf of CSSC. Though the classes aren’t for profit, it’s a marketing strategy that gives their name and number to agencies that require their services. These days, her skills are put to the test daily as she trains classes all over California. Currently the company carries three major services: crime scene clean up, hoarder clean up and the Home Again Foundation, which provides government-funded assistance to those in need of the company’s services.

“All of us as a team do amazing work and you leave the job exhausted most of the time, not just some of the time,” says the upbeat, blonde-haired former wedding coordinator. There was a time early on in the business where she found herself plucking skull fragments out of walls as she cleaned crime scenes side by side with her husband. She calls them “the old knee pad and scrub brush days.”

Staring down death
Besides being on call 24 hours a day, it’s an employee’s ability to deal with distraught clients on a daily basis that determines how they will fair in the company. The ability to deal with people at the worst time in their lives is a mission that never gets easier.

Despite, or maybe because of the gruesome nature of their business, CSSC has no shortage of media interest in what they do. The company has been the subject of several TV pilots and magazine articles. Even Samuel L. Jackson came down for a training session to prepare for a movie role in the 2008 film Cleaner. On a daily basis, Chalmers fields emails and phone calls from people who want a job, chasing gory TV fantasies.

“It’s not glamorous, not CSI,” says Tammy Chalmers. “It’s hard, back-breaking, emotional, difficult—everything you could possibly say about a job.”

For workers like King, who’ve spent countless nights erasing blood and bad memories for clients, the job has taught lessons that sometimes only a stare down with death can provide.

“When you’re cleaning up a 19-year-old kid who just got hit by a car, it makes you realize that you don’t have a predetermined amount of time. So it’s within our best interest as human beings to kind of embrace every single minute as if it is going to be the last one and that’s what I try to live by everyday and just be a very pleasant, happy person.”

Crime Scene Leftovers Pose Problem For Sanitation

2009-06-28T14:51:00.001-07:00

Call it the Case of the Bloody Mattress.

City sanitation workers in southwestern Kentucky were recently left with the problem of how to dispose of a bloody mattress put out with the trash.

The mattress came from a home where police say a 37-year-old man appears to have died from self-inflicted stab wounds. The problem came when trash collectors realized they couldn't pick up a potential biohazard, but didn't want to leave it by the side of the road in a residential neighborhood in Hopkinsville.

"This was an area of concern for us because blood is considered a biohazard and not only can our trash trucks not pick it up, but it could be dangerous for people in the community," said George Hampton, a route supervisor for Hopkinsville Solid Waste Authority.

The Kentucky New Era reports that the mattress disappeared by midweek, but sanitation officials didn't take it and were still trying to make sure it was properly disposed of. The location of the mattress remained a mystery at week's end.

Hopkinsville sanitation workers received an anonymous call reporting a mattress, possibly covered in blood, that had been set on a curb outside of a home. That was the concern of the anonymous caller, Hampton said, who said children in the neighborhood could start to play on the mattress and come into contact with the dried blood that might have diseases.

Because there was blood on the mattress, sanitation workers couldn't haul it off with the rest of the trash.

"It raises a question for us about where we take it from here," Hampton said. "Someone has to clean up messes like these and we can't do it."

Solid Waste Superintendent Bill Bailey said sanitation workers aren't allowed to pick up possible biohazards, including blood, from the side of the road. Instead, Bailey said, the department needs to call other landfills to see who will pick up and take the items.

"Sometimes we can process and wrap it in plastic and dispose of it that way. But other times we have to contact a company that deals with disposing of medical waste."

Charlotte Write, a spokeswoman for Stericycle, a national company that specializes in medical waste disposal, said medical waste is generally burned to kill pathogens that can live in dried blood.

"It is important to dispose of all medical waste, especially waste that comes from the body, so as not to spread diseases," Write said.

Hopkinsville Police Chief Guy Howie said the families must clean up the scene of a murder or suicide or pay to have it done.

"It doesn't sound very friendly, I know, but that's just how it has to be handled," Howie said. "Someone has to clean it up and someone has to dispose of all of this, it's just a matter of figuring out who. It's amazing that just one mattress on a curb can raise so many questions."

Someone solved sanitation's problem by taking the mattress from in front of the home. Bailey said sanitation workers didn't remove it, but finding out what became of the mattress is important. It had to be properly sterilized and disposed of.

"We can't just stick it in our landfill and be done with it," Bailey said. "Whether it's on that curb or not, it's still hazardous material."

Berkeley Man’s Suicide Leads to Discovery of Body Buried Behind Wall

2009-06-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

By Richard Brenneman

The dramatic suicide of a Berkeley man late Monday afternoon led police to a second gruesome discovery two days later, a badly decomposed male corpse walled up inside the a first floor laundry room.

A caller’s report of a loud argument brought officers to the building at 2235 Ashby Ave. Monday night, and they were directed to the apartment of Hassan Bin Ali.

Once the officers were inside the apartment, Bin Ali “pulled a handgun, put it to his head and subsequently took his own life,” said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Andrew Frankel.

The police daily bulletin for Monday lists the time of the shot as 5:55 p.m.

Mortally wounded, he was rushed to Highland Hospital by a Berkeley Fire Department ambulance, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Frankel said the dead man had lived alone, and officers don’t know who he was arguing with at the time they were called. “We haven’t heard any reports of anyone seen coming or going, so it could have been an argument over the telephone,” he said.

During the subsequent investigation, “officers on the scene found evidence that led them to believe another crime may have been committed.”

Based on that evidence, detectives obtained a search warrant and began a thorough search of the building, leading to the discovery of the body entombed behind a wall on the first floor.

“I have no idea how long the body had been there,” he said. The body was in a state of advanced decomposition, and it was only the following day that forensic examiners were able to determine that the corpse was that of a male.

While one published account cited a neighbor who had described Bin Ali as paranoid before his suicide, Frankel said he had spoken to a neighbor who had been shocked that the man had taken his own life.

The Alameda County Coroner’s office is currently conducting an examination to determine what killed the concealed corpse, and until a finding is made, Frankel said the cause is being listed as “suspicious,” rather than as a homicide.

“We’re still aggressively working the case,” he said.

In a statement to the press released Friday afternoon, Berkeley Police Sgt Mary Kusmiss said “the Alameda County Coroner completed an autopsy yesterday. Due to decomposition of the body, the coroner will have to rely on dental records to confirm and/or rule out an identity.”

Bin Ali is known to have had a son, and officers have been unable to locate him, “though we are in contact with other members of the family,” Frankel said.

He asked anyone with any information about Bin Ali and the case to call police at 981-6900.

Berkeley firefighters were called to the scene after the body was discovered to assist with biohazard containment, said Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong.

Berkeley police were responsible for retrieving the remains, which were contained in a large coffin-sized wooden box.

“We provided tools and equipment,” said Deputy Chief Dong.

Once police and firefighters had completed their phase of the removal, Arturo Sopon and his private cleanup team Morgan Environmental Service, an Oakland firm licensed by the state to handle hazardous waste and trauma scenes, arrived to finish the job, donning Tyvek suits, protective masks, boots and gloves, taping over the seams to prevent exposure.

“We clean up bodily fluids,” Sopon said, adding that work often spiked over the Christmas season and during summer months.

Why you need crime scene cleanup services

2009-05-16T13:34:00.001-07:00

By Alex Thomson

Crime scene cleanup or trauma scene cleanup after the death of someone either violently or naturally is by and large the responsibility of the victim’s family. Even till few years ago, there were a handful of cleaning companies that specialized in trauma cleaning service. But today this niche service has emerged as a lucrative business and there are many companies who provide this service.

Trauma cleaning service requires special experience, skills, equipment and expertise to deal with different types of bio-hazardous waste and dispose them efficiently with the minimum possible emotional stress to the victim’s family.

The most traumatic form of death is violent death and leaves the victim’s family feeling both victimized and traumatized. Coming to terms with the unnatural death of a loved one is in itself an uphill task for the bereaved family, and to top it they have to deal with other practical matters like making funeral arrangements, dealing with insurance issues, contacting surviving family and friends and locating wills. Furthermore, in case of violent crimes the police and the media are also involved. This can really overwhelm any family. Here is where trauma cleaning service comes to your rescue. They lighten one of the heaviest burdens, that is of dealing with the horrid murder cleanup. They will take care of the crime scene cleanup, ensuring that the scene is restored to its pre-incidental state as far as possible and in the most quick and efficient manner thus allowing you to deal with other important matters. Most service providers work discreetly and protect the confidentiality of the sufferer and family.

Most of the times, the crime scenes are so ghastly that they can induce additional emotional trauma in victim’s friends and family. By hiring professionals for cleanup, you can reduce this emotional stress. Immediately after death the nature begins its process of breaking down the body. Unattended death scene and dead bodies can be dangerous as it gives rise to blood borne pathogens, mold spores and bacteria. You may try to clean the area by yourself but the exposure may result in flu-like diseases or direct attack on the respiratory system. So it is advisable to leave this job to professionals who specialize in bio fluid and blood remediation.

The total cost involving a trauma scene cleanup will depend on a number of factors. One of the most major factors is that how many technicians will be needed for the job, how long will the job take and the quantity of hazardous material that needs to be treated and disposed of. It can range anywhere in the range of $100 to $1000 per hour. Some people might call this business as capitalizing on death but it is still essential and indispensable in case of a death.

Crime Scene Cleanup: What It Involves

2009-05-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

A crime scene cleanup service is not without its complications. Crime scene cleaning encompasses restoring the crime scene to its original state. When a crime is usually discovered, crime scene cleaners are not called until after officers of the law, like the crime scene investigators, have done their jobs first and have given the go ahead for the cleaners to come in. If you intend to hire a crime scene cleanup company, you must make sure that they are well equipped and fit right to get the job done. A crime scene presents challenging conditions.

The Use Of Protective Gears:
Crime scenes can very well involve the use of hazardous or deadly substances. For safety reasons then, it has become imperative that crime scene cleaners use protective clothing, in addition to protective tools and gadgets. You must see to it that they have all the necessary protective gears and gadgets. The protective clothing can consist of disposable gloves and suits. A disposable gear is preferred nowadays since it offers the best protection against contamination. You use it one time and get rid of it. That way, the dangers of contamination is virtually brought down to zero percent. Protective clothing extends to respirators and the use of heavy-duty industrial or chemical-spill protective boots.

Among the gadgets that a crime scene cleaning company must have are special brushes, special sprayers, and wet vacuum. These special tools ensure added protection against getting into contact with the hazard could very well be present in the crime scene. There is large, special equipment such as a mounted steam injection tool that is designed to sanitize dried up biohazard materials such as scattered flesh and brain. You would also need to check if they have the specialized tank for chemical treatments and industrial strength waste containers to collect biohazard waste.

Of course, any crime scene clean up must have the usual cleaning supplies common to all cleaning service companies. There are the buckets, mops, brushes and spray bottles. For cleaning products, you should check if they use industrial cleaning products. A crime scene cleaning company must have these on their lists:

1 - Disinfectants including hydrogen peroxide and bleaches - The kinds that the hospitals used are commonly acceptable.

2 - Enzyme solvers for cleaning blood stains. It also kills viruses and bacteria.

3 - Odor removers such as foggers, ozone machines, and deodorizers

4 - Handy tools for breaking and extending such as saws, sledgehammers, and ladders

Established crime scene operators also equip themselves with cameras and take pictures of the crime scene before commencing work which. The pictures taken may prove useful for legal matters and insurance purposes. You never know which.

Needless to say, a specially fitted form of transportation and proper waste disposal is also needed. These requirements are specific. As you can imagine, crime scene cleaning is in a different category on its own. A home cleaning or janitorial service company may not be able to cope up with the demands of a crime scene. A crime scene cleanup service requires many special gears and tools that a home cleaning or a janitorial service company does not usually have or does not require. Crime scene cleaning if not done correctly can expose the public to untold hazards.

What Else To Look For In A Crime Scene Cleanup Company
You may also want to hire a company that has established itself. An experienced company with a strong reputation is always a plus but it could be expensive too. You will do well to balance your needs with what is your budget. There are several companies that offer specific prices such as for death scene clean up categories and suicide clean up categories. Most companies own a website and have round the clock customer service as receptionists.

When looking for a suitable crime scene cleaning service, among the first things you need to do is to scout for price quotes. Crime scene cleanup services usually provide quote after they have examined the crime scene and then they give you a definite quote. Factors that are usually considered include the number of personnel that will be needed to get the job done. It also includes the amount of time that might be needed. The nature and amount of the waste materials that need to be disposed will also be factored in. You can be sure that the more sophisticated equipments needed the more expensive it will get.

Crime Scene Cleanup And Your Insurance
For homeowners, the best approach is always to make sure that crime scene cleanup services clauses and provisions are written down on the contracts or policies. The inclusion of crime cleanup services clauses is very common and has become standard clause in most homeowner’s policy. Make sure that you are covered for this unforeseen event. Make sure that your policy directs the crime scene cleaning company to transact directly with the homeowner insurance company. A crime scene cleaning service is usually a standard clause in many homeowners’ insurance clause. These companies often do the paperwork in behalf of clients.

If for some reason you do not have such coverage by any policies relating to crime scene cleanup on your home, there are ways to keep your expenses controlled.

Finding the right company can be very taxing, especially that you have to deal with the emotional stress stemming from the crime itself, especially with a crime scene involving death.

There are many crime scene cleanup companies in operation nowadays. There are reliable professionals that you can hire and prices are relatively competitive. As of recently, crime-scene cleanup services can cost up to $600 for an hour of their service. A homicide case alone involving a single room and a huge amount of blood can cost about $1,000 to $3,000.

In recent years, crime scene cleaning has come to be known as, "Crime and Trauma Scene Decontamination or CTS. Basically, CTS is a special form of crime scene cleaning focusing on decontamination of the crime scene from hazardous substances such as those resulting from violent crimes or those involving chemical contaminations such as methamphetamine labs or anthrax production. This type of service is particularly common when violent crimes are committed in a home. It is rare that the residents move out of the home after it has become a scene of a crime. Most often, the residents just opt to have it cleaned up. That is why, it is very important to hire the best crime scene cleaning company out there. The place needs to be totally free from contamination of any kind. You have to make sure that the company is able to remove all traces of the violent crime that took place. This includes cleaning biohazards that are sometimes invisible to the untrained eye.

Legally speaking, federal laws state that all bodily fluids are deemed biohazards and you should make sure that the cleanup service company you hire understands this and includes it in the cleanup. These things appear as blood or tissue splattered on a crime scene. You must be able to hire a company that is equipped with special knowledge to safely handle biohazard materials. The company must have the knowledge what to search for in any give biohazard crime scene. For instance, the company should be able to tell clues such that if there is a bloodstain the size of a thumbnail on a carpet, you can bet that there is about a huge bloodstain underneath. Federal and State laws have their own laws in terms of transport and disposal of biohazard waste. Make sure that the company you hire has all the permits necessary.

It will also be a huge plus if you could hire people who not only has the special trainings but also who have the nature to be sympathetic. If you are close to the victim and have the cleaning done at the behest of the victim’s relatives, it would matter that the cleaners tread the site with some level of respect. It is a common site that family members and loved ones are often there at scene. In general, when looking for a suitable crime scene cleaners, you would take into considerations the kind of situation that the crimes scene presents and the demands that it require. Crime scene cleaning companies handle a wide variety of crime scenes and prices may vary from one to the other crime scene and one to the other company.

Each type of scene requires its own particular demands not only to make the crime scene look clean and neat on the surface but to make it germ free, and clean inside and to make it free from all deadly and infectious substances. The cleanup cost for biohazards may vary depending on degree of the bio hazard(s) on the scene. There may even be a category that changes the cleanup pricing which usually involves decomposing bodies and carcasses. Likewise, a cleanup of chemical hazards vary, depending on the amount of chemical hazards as well as the grades i.e. how hazardous the substance is in terms of human contact. Prices are also determined by the number of hours and personnel that it would to get the crime scene cleaned. In addition, the "gross factor" from crime scene involving death and gore needs to be taken under consideration regarding the chemicals that will be used as opposed to those crimes' that do not have gore involved.

Traumatic Grief

2009-05-06T06:41:00.001-07:00

By Nancy Crump

Since the late 1980’s, we have seen an increase in interest and research on the effects of trauma on the grief process. We have learned that the grief process from the sudden, unexpected, and often violent deaths of suicide, homicide, auto accidents, natural disasters, and other types of deaths, is very different from the grief process of those who have died from natural causes, old age, or long-termed illness. Many, if not all, of the deaths faced by Bio Technicians fall into the category of traumatic. Those family members who hire you have usually been touched by the trauma of the death. Understanding the traumatic grief process and its differences from other types of grief may be of some help to you as you deal with these family members.

There are several key elements that make the responses by family members to a traumatic death difficult. First is the suddenness of the death. Family members usually did not have time to prepare themselves for the death and to make the psychological adjustments to cope with the news of the death. Also, the suddenness of the death does not give the family an opportunity to say goodbye to the victim before their death. Second, the violence of the death may leave the family with horrific memories and nightmares that often interfere with the grief process. Third, many of these types of deaths require police intervention and the family is often not given the support, information, and compassion they need at the time. Another element can be the presence of the media at the time of the death, as well as weeks and months later if legal issues follow the death. Most traumatic deaths involve young people who’s parents, grandparents, and siblings may still live. Certainly, the death of a child or young person is very difficult to cope with.

Reactions to a traumatic death can be very different, more intense, and longer lasting than other types of death. The emotions following a traumatic death are often conflicting and intense. There is a tendency to relive the death event over and over in an attempt to make it real. Intrusive thoughts and nightmares are very common. Intense physical responses such as inability to eat or sleep, stomach aches and headaches, muscle tension, high blood pressure and a decrease in the autoimmune system are also common. Many times, the survivors must deal with intense feelings of guilt or remorse, feeling that they were somehow responsible or could have prevented the death “if only”. Family members have the need to tell the story of the death over and over again in an attempt to gain a sense of the reality of the death. They often have an overwhelming need to learn all they can about the circumstances of the death - how the person died, whether they were in pain, did they know they were dying, what were their last words, who saw what happened, and in cases of homicide, who committed the murder. All of these reactions are ways the survivors use to grasp the reality of the death and to begin the grief process.

As Bio Technicians, you are often called by family members or meet them upon arrival to the scene. Understanding some of the dynamics of trauma on the grief process may help as you help the family. Understanding the “normalcy” of the reactions you may see can help you feel more competent and assured to speak with family members without wondering whether or not you are saying the “right” thing. Some suggestions are listed below, but the most important thing is to convey sincerity and compassion to the family. They are very vulnerable and sensitive to words, expressions, and body language. Just make sure that what you say and do is congruent with how you feel or you will come across as insincere and uncaring.

Soon after a traumatic death, most survivors simply need to tell the story to anyone who will listen. It is important for their recovery to be able to do this. If you have time to listen, do so. They are not necessarily looking for any input from you; they just need someone to listen.

Remember that there are two basic rules for grieving people – you don’t hurt yourself or someone else. If, during the conversation, you hear comments that indicate the person is thinking of either, you might suggest they go talk to someone else before making a decision to do something like this. Create a list of counselors, therapists, or mental health centers to hand out at times like these. Take comments about thoughts of suicide seriously and offer to call a friend or family member to be with the person and get them help. Suicide rates often increase after a sudden, traumatic death of a loved one. These are very difficult situations for you as a caregiver, but you need to set limits as to what you can and cannot do. Listening and having resources available are all you need. The survivor needs to take some responsibility for them, and others who are better trained to handle these situations need to be contacted.

Although many reactions may look and feel “crazy”, most are normal reactions to the situation. Again, as long as they don’t hurt themselves or someone else, they are probably reacting normally to an abnormal situation. Helping normalize these reactions is very helpful to the survivor. Encouraging the survivor to talk and to express what they are experiencing is also helpful. Making a simple statement such as, “I think I’d feel the same way if this happened to me”, helps the survivor feel less out of control.

There are many support groups available to survivors that would make a good resource for them. Creating a list of those in your community or in nearby communities is a great gift for survivors. They may not want to attend a support group, but usually someone from the group is always willing to talk to them by telephone or offer assistance.

In the work you do, you may find yourself in situations of dealing with survivors who have needs you do not feel comfortable or competent in dealing with. That’s okay as it is not your responsibility to be all things to all people. However, there are these simple steps you can take to help your families in a meaningful way. You can listen. You can refer. You can offer resources. Having some general knowledge of the traumatic grief process may make you feel more competent in dealing with your families and knowing that you are being supportive and helpful in a meaningful way.

Below are some national organizations that offer support groups in almost every locality. They are specific to either the type of death or the relationship to the person who died and are more appropriate to traumatic deaths. They all have web sites or central telephone numbers that can be contacted for local information.

The Compassionate Friends – for parents’ whose child has died of any cause.
MADD – Mothers Against Drunk Drivers offer support for parents who a drunk driver killed child
Widowed Persons Service – sponsored by AARP for spousal death
SOS – Survivors of Suicide support groups
POMC – Parents of Murdered Children and other victims of homicide.

These and many other groups may be listed at your county’s Victim Assistance Office usually located in the office of the District Attorney. Also, check with your local hospices or hospitals. They offer support groups that are open to the public. Some local churches may also host support groups. As you create your list, don’t try to keep up with the dates and times of group meetings as they change frequently. All you need is the name of the group, a telephone number, and possibly a contact person. Leave it to the survivors to take the responsibility to make the calls on their own behalf.

"Oughta Be A Law" Bills Pass First Hurdle

2009-05-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

May 02, 2009 SACRAMENTO
Medical Sharps Waste – SB 486 – Betty Lipkin

Legislation aimed at creating a safe way to handle "sharps" (a type of medical waste that includes syringes and lancets) passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee with a 7-0 vote Monday, gaining broad bipartisan support. SB 486, authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee for approval.

Contest winner and San Carlos resident Betty Lipkin suffers from multiple sclerosis. She, along with more than a dozen members of the National Multiple Sclerosis society attended the committee hearing, speaking in support of the bill.

"For anyone with a family member who takes insulin or other medical injections, this idea will seem long overdue," Simitian said. "We tell patients they can´t throw sharps away, but there isn´t an easy, safe solution. SB 486 is a step toward that solution and making it possible to do the right thing, and we´ll all be safer as a result."

SB 486 requires pharmaceutical manufacturers who sell medications that are routinely injected at home to submit plans to the California Integrated Waste Management Board describing how they support and provide safe needle collection and disposal programs for the patients who inject their drugs.

"There has to be a way to get rid of these containers that doesn´t cost an arm and a leg," said Lipkin. "I´ve never been able to find a way to do it, and I think it´s time we do something about it that´s ecologically sound and safe."

It is estimated that over one million people in California use syringes and other sharps for home health care.

The most disgusting court case we've reported on to date

2009-05-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's not "Pacific Heights," but it's a mighty bizarre landlord-tenant dispute.

Landlord George David has gone to court to evict a tenant who was living amid so much feces and urine in his apartment at 2857 Bush St. that it led an $18,000 bill from a crime-scene cleanup company to abate a health hazard, court documents show.

At least feces weren't involved.
The unsanitary conditions also led to tenant Todd McCullough getting his feet amputated after gout in his leg became infected and he developed gangrene, according to court filings.

But McCullough wants to stay in the apartment he's lived in for the last 16 years and says the landlord is illegally trying to evict him in violation of state law and San Francisco's rent control ordinance.

McCullough says he's being discriminated against because of a disability -- gout, and now his lack of feet -- and that David's true motive is to evict him so he can jack up the $750-a-month rent on a new tenant.

David's attorney, Hilary Hedemark, says the case is straightforward: McCullough "caused a life-threatening biohazard to exist at the premises" in violation of his lease, ignored requests to clean it up and failed to pay rent.

An upstairs neighbor complained about what they thought was a dead animal smell, and another neighbor who went to check on McCullough on Jan. 16 said inside the apartment "the stench was unbearable," court documents show.

There were feces smeared on the walls, floor, doors, counters, mattress, sofa and throughout the bathroom, according to the clean-up company. A neighbor saw feces smeared about and what appeared to be plastic bags, glass jars and a trash can all filled with urine.

Beyond the clean up, there was more than $10,000 in repairs to the floors, appliances, windows and elsewhere, David's attorneys say.

McCullough contends he was unable to maintain the property as he wanted because of his gout, and says David "greatly exaggerated the degree of damage."

The city's Health Department issued two notices to abate unsanitary conditions, though, and photos in the court file are not pretty.

The trial starts Monday.

Posted By: John Coté (Email) | May 01 2009 at 11:33 AM

RELEASE: Statement from Town and Gown Players

2009-04-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

ATHENS (MyFOX ATLANTA) - The three people we lost yesterday were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family.

Ben Teague, loving husband of UGA's Dr. Fran Teague for more than 40 years, was not only a friend but also a father figure to all at the theater. One would be hard pressed to find a Town and Gowner who had not learned at least one life lesson from this wise and kind hearted man. His wife wishes to say, "Yesterday Ben was murdered, which is hard to comprehend and impossible to accept. It was a beautiful day, however, and he was in his favorite place with the people he loved." Ben was a translator of German, Russian and English.

Marie Bruce was the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together. Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer. A local attorney, Marie was the mother of two young children.

A gentle presence, Tom Tanner breathed life into every corner of Town and Gown through his quiet diligence and astounding creativity - most would call him genius. Father of an equally amazing daughter, Tom would tell you that while he enjoyed his work as director of the Regional Dynamics Economic Modeling Laboratory at Clemson University, his heart lived and thrived in the theater.

Ben, Marie and Tom were a part of our family, and as painful as their loss is for us, we know it is even more painful for their families. We want to extend our deepest sympathy to their immediate family and close friends outside the theater community. There are no words we can use to adequately express our grief.

We would like to thank the Athens Police department and the media for their respectful treatment of this tragedy. We want to thank the American Bio Recovery Association and A1 BIO-Clean Service for the generous donation of their services in our time of need. We also want to thank the Athens Community for their support. This tragedy effects everyone in the community in some way, and we know you share in our loss. We ask that the media continue to be respectful of our privacy during this difficult time.

Custodian’s stress-disorder suit restored

2009-04-22T06:46:00.001-07:00

Meghann M. Cuniff / Staff writer

A custodian who sued her school district after being forced to clean up the bloody scene of a student’s suicide had her lawsuit reinstated Tuesday by the Washington Court of Appeals.

Debbie Rothwell, who still works at Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in May 2007 by her lawyer, William Powell, of Spokane. The 16-year-old student shot himself in the head inside the school’s main entrance in 2004. The lawsuit was dismissed in January 2008 by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt, who ruled the incident was covered by the Industrial Insurance Act.

But the Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, disagreed and reinstated the suit.

“There are people who do clean up the mess after one of these horrible murders or suicides happen,” Powell said Tuesday, referring to private professionals. “But the superintendent in this case chose not to do that. He should have known better.”

Along with former Superintendent Michael Green, now superintendent of the Woodland School District in Western Washington, the lawsuit names the Nine Miles Falls School District, Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer, two sheriff’s detectives and an unidentified man as defendants.

None was available for comment. Like most civil suits in Washington, the complaint seeks unspecified damages.

Rothwell’s complaints center around her task of cleaning up the suicide scene, then being asked to move a backpack she later learned belonged to the victim and contained a suspicious device that authorities detonated using a robot.

She stayed at work until after 4 a.m., cleaning the mess of blood, brain and bone alone, becoming “emotionally distraught and physically ill” before returning to the school less than four hours later at Green’s orders to serve cookies and coffee to grieving students and keep the media from the school, according to the suit.

At issue in the court decisions was whether Rothwell’s claim of post-traumatic stress disorder fell under the industrial injury act, which prohibits lawsuits based on industry injury or occupational disease.

Judges John A. Schultheis and Dennis J. Sweeney ruled it didn’t because it wasn’t the result of one work order. Her trauma grew over several days, according to their written opinion. Judge Teresa C. Kulik dissented.

Cleanup completed at Civic Association

2009-04-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

April 5, 2009

Cleanup has been completed at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, where a gunman killed 13 people and injured four before taking his own life Friday.

The American Bio-Recovery Association, a non-profit international association of crime and trauma scene professionals, said Sunday that the bio-recovery cleaning was complete. The Ipswich, Mass.-based group provided the service at no cost.

Two member companies, Disaster Clean Up of Endwell and the Bio-Recovery Corporation of New York City, donated labor and supplies to remediate the scene with a crew of six technicians.

Bio-Recovery Corporation Aids In Binghamton Crime Scene Cleanup

2009-04-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE
April 5th 2009

Bio-Recovery Corporation of New York City and Diaster Scene Cleanup of Endwell, NY responded to the American Civic Association on April 5th 2009 at the request of the American Bio-Recovery Association to aid the American Civic Association and the entire Binghamton community with the cleanup of the crime scene left in the aftermath of Fridays multiple homicide, suicide at their offices located at 131 Front St Binghamton, NY.

At the request of Dale Cillian, President of the non profit American Bio-Recovery Association (ABRA), the two named companies above provided all the labor and equipment to complete this cleanup in one day at no cost to the American Civic Association. "I couldn't have done this without you guys," stated Andrew Baranoski, Executive Director of the non-profit American Civic Association.

The American Bio Recovery Association, an international association of Crime & Trauma Scene Cleanup professionals strives to make these services available to all that require it throughout the United States.

Company tackles the cleanup jobs no one else wants -- bodies of the dead

2009-03-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

Andrew Jacobs, New York Times

New York -- It would be safe to assume that the man in 6-F did not have many friends or relatives, or at least none who called or visited regularly. No one, not even his neighbors, noticed his absence for a number of weeks. That is, not until a putrid odor began filling the hallways of the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City.

Consuelo Sanchez, 55, whose apartment is adjacent to 6-F, complained about the smell for weeks before housing authority officials unlocked the door to discover the decomposed body on a sofa, the television still burbling away. The occupant, an 86-year-old retired transit worker, had died a month earlier of natural causes. "I kept telling them, 'The man is dead,' '' Sanchez said. "I was hoping I wasn't right."

The medical examiner removed the bulk of the remains, but it was up to Ronald Gospodarski to take care of the rest, most of them viscous and indescribably malodorous. The man in 6-F had largely soaked into the sofa cushions as his body decayed, and his gastric acid had melted through the plastic covering on the upholstery.

"I don't care if you're black, white, rich or poor, whether you live in the projects or a penthouse, everyone smells the same when they die," Gospodarski said as he scraped a caramel-colored goo off the floor of Apartment 6-F this spring.

Gospodarski, a paramedic for 23 years, is what is known as a bio-recovery technician, a highly trained, extremely efficient, self-employed house-cleaner of sorts whose specialty is removing the unpleasant aftereffects of suicides, attempted suicides, shotgun murders, accidental impalements and, in the case of lonely, unnoticed passings like that of the man in 6-F, "decomps."

In a city like New York, Gospodarski and his six employees are rarely idle. In recent months, they have mopped up a mailroom clerk who jumped from the 38th floor of an office building, sterilized a piece of filtration equipment that took the life of a water company employee and cleaned up after a boyfriend put a bullet through the head of a Staten Island mother as she made shrimp gumbo in her kitchen.

His company, Bio-Recovery Corp., is the only business based in New York that specializes in such matters. There are a couple of similar cleanup companies with offices outside New York, but Bio-Recovery dominates the business in the city, mainly through word of mouth. It operates from a building that sits across the street from a cemetery in Queens.

"Everyone is dying to see us," said Gospodarski, 43, a jovial, talkative man who requires little prompting to recount some of his more memorable jobs, all of which he records in photographs that he keeps on his computer to show visitors.

It was Gospodarski who dealt with the mayhem of the Wendy's restaurant massacre in 2000 that left five people dead in Queens and the triple murder that took place a year later above the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan. Bio-Recovery also tackled the anthrax contamination of the New York Post and ABC News and the sterilization of the Regal Princess, a cruise ship whose passengers were sickened by the Norwalk virus in 2003.

But the meat-and-potatoes of Gospodarski's business is unheralded deaths, like that of a troubled teenager who shot himself in the basement of his parents' Richmond Hill home in September or the quiet demise of elderly New Yorkers.

In the case of the man in 6-F, his extended period of decay fouled every item in his apartment, requiring that everything, even sections of the floor, be removed and discarded.

"I've had guys left dead for months, where fluid seeped down six floors and everything had to be torn out," Gospodarski said. "You can't leave one drop of blood or body fluid or the place will stink."

In most cases, he said, postmortem cleanup is quick and simple -- wiping down blood-splattered walls, ripping out soiled carpet -- but it is a job that would undoubtedly prove burdensome to grieving relatives.

"Most of the time we're simply providing psychological comfort," Gospodarski said. "People who commit suicide don't think about what they're going to leave behind."

Bio-Recovery's services start at $600 for cases of minimal decomposition and reach into the thousands for more extensive mayhem. The company generally uses industrial-strength cleanser, but its newest service involves superheating an entire apartment, which kills odor-producing microbes and eliminates the need to throw every last painting, book and piece of electronic equipment in the trash. The minimum cost for that procedure is $3,000.

The New York State Crime Victims Board will pay up to $2,500 for cleaning up after a homicide, and many car insurance policies cover the price of restoring the interior of vehicles whose passengers wind up on the wrong end of a gun. Gospodarski said he never turns anyone away, even if the client cannot pay the fee.

"We never leave anyone hanging," he said without apparent irony. Nearly all of his jobs come from referrals from police officers, prosecutors and paramedics. He does not, he said, call grieving families whose loss he gleans from newspaper accounts.

Bio-Recovery started in Gospodarski's apartment in 1998. After his years as a paramedic, Gospodarski said, he was bothered by what he saw on the job.

Ambulance crews would take away a body and leave behind a disturbing pile of latex gloves, syringes and blood-soaked gauze. The detectives who often followed would ring the scene with yellow police tape and spray fingerprint dust around every light switch and door knob.

"I've seen the medical examiner leave behind pieces of brain," he said. "Grieving families shouldn't have to deal with that."

Gospodarski and his crew are alternately philosophical and vulgar, cracking jokes about the gore in their midst, or about the housekeeping habits of the deceased.

Last week, as they cleaned up the blood of Chantel Curtis, the Staten Island woman who was shot by a boyfriend who then killed himself, Gospodarski could not help noticing the details of her life: the treadmill in the living room, the vase of roses on the table and the joyful clutter of children's toys.

"Why can't these people just kill themselves and leave everyone else alone?" he asked, his eyes pausing on a photograph of the victim and her young son.

It comes as some relief to Bio-Recovery's workers that many cleanups are limited to tiled bathrooms. A fair number of suicides are carried out in bathtubs, and many elderly people, beset by illness, will retreat to a bathroom to die, often on the toilet, the workers said.

Manny Sosa, like many employees, said he had become inured to death. He once retched during a cleanup that required him to handle entrails, but by now he can eat lunch on the job. "Sometimes we play detective and try to figure out what happened," said Sosa, 26. "I actually look forward to coming to work."

While they may be accustomed to gore, even the hardiest among the crew were unnerved by a recent job that required them to clean out a house in the Bronx that had been used for Santeria, the South American and Caribbean religion that involves the ritual slaughter of animals. The practitioners had defaulted on their mortgage, leaving the bank to deal with whatever mysteries lurked in the dank basement.

Gospodarski's workers, dressed in biohazard suits, sifted through soil and discovered animal hoofs, desiccated snakes, razor blades and bottles of liquid marked with the international symbol for poison. The workers, most of them from Latin America and the West Indies, were clearly scared. At one point, Sosa unearthed what appeared to be a clump of human hair, and the crew's collective shudder was palpable. "I don't like this one bit," Sosa said. "I'd rather be dealing with a gunshot victim."

The summer months were unusually slow, and Gospodarski said he was looking forward to winter, when violence tends to move indoors.

Bloodshed is most common in the summer, but there is little money to be made from gunplay that stains the pavement. With winter, however, people end up packed into tiny apartments. Throw boredom, drugs and weapons into the mix, and you have the potential makings for a bio-recovery bonanza.

"When cabin fever sets in, we get a lot of calls," he said. "All you can do is hope for a heavy snowstorm."

This article appeared on page A - 22 of the San Francisco Chronicle

The Top 13 Worst Jobs with the Best Pay

2009-02-28T13:07:00.001-08:00

These are dirty jobs and somebody has to do them. At least they get paid well for their efforts
Think you have a lousy job? You're not alone. So do about half of your fellow workers—and about a quarter of them are only showing up to collect a paycheck, according to a survey conducted by London-based market information company TNS. Grumbling over the size of that check is common, too. About two-thirds of workers believe they don't get paid enough, says TNS—even though many of them may actually be overpaid, compared to average compensation data

Crime-Scene Cleaner
Average pay: $50,400
If crime-scene cleanup was just wiping blood off the floors—well, that would be easy. But CSI fans with get-rich-quick dreams should note the job involves more than handiness with a mop and a tolerance for the smell of decomposing flesh. Getting rid of bodily fluids typically calls for more rough-and-ready methods, such as ripping up carpet, tile, and baseboards. It also sometimes means working in confined spaces (if someone was electrocuted in an attic, for example). And when tearing up old houses, workers face exposure to hazards such as lead paint and asbestos—not to mention the combustible chemicals involved in drug-lab abatement.

Crime Scene Cleanup: What It Involves

2009-02-20T22:35:00.001-08:00

The Restoration Resource

A crime scene cleanup service is not without its complications. Crime scene cleaning encompasses restoring the crime scene to its original state. When a crime is usually discovered, crime scene cleaners are not called until after officers of the law, like the crime scene investigators, have done their jobs first and have given the go ahead for the cleaners to come in. If you intend to hire a crime scene cleanup company, you must make sure that they are well equipped and fit right to get the job done. A crime scene presents challenging conditions.

The Use Of Protective Gears:
Crime scenes can very well involve the use of hazardous or deadly substances. For safety reasons then, it has become imperative that crime scene cleaners use protective clothing, in addition to protective tools and gadgets. You must see to it that they have all the necessary protective gears and gadgets. The protective clothing can consist of disposable gloves and suits. A disposable gear is preferred nowadays since it offers the best protection against contamination. You use it one time and get rid of it. That way, the dangers of contamination is virtually brought down to zero percent. Protective clothing extends to respirators and the use of heavy-duty industrial or chemical-spill protective boots.

Among the gadgets that a crime scene cleaning company must have are special brushes, special sprayers, and wet vacuum. These special tools ensure added protection against getting into contact with the hazard could very well be present in the crime scene. There is large, special equipment such as a mounted steam injection tool that is designed to sanitize dried up biohazard materials such as scattered flesh and brain. You would also need to check if they have the specialized tank for chemical treatments and industrial strength waste containers to collect biohazard waste.

Of course, any crime scene clean up must have the usual cleaning supplies common to all cleaning service companies. There are the buckets, mops, brushes and spray bottles. For cleaning products, you should check if they use industrial cleaning products. A crime scene cleaning company must have these on their lists:

1 - Disinfectants including hydrogen peroxide and bleaches - The kinds that the hospitals used are commonly acceptable.

2 - Enzyme solvers for cleaning blood stains. It also kills viruses and bacteria.

3 - Odor removers such as foggers, ozone machines, and deodorizers

4 - Handy tools for breaking and extending such as saws, sledgehammers, and ladders

Established crime scene operators also equip themselves with cameras and take pictures of the crime scene before commencing work which. The pictures taken may prove useful for legal matters and insurance purposes. You never know which.

Needless to say, a specially fitted form of transportation and proper waste disposal is also needed. These requirements are specific. As you can imagine, crime scene cleaning is in a different category on its own. A home cleaning or janitorial service company may not be able to cope up with the demands of a crime scene. A crime scene cleanup service requires many special gears and tools that a home cleaning or a janitorial service company does not usually have or does not require. Crime scene cleaning if not done correctly can expose the public to untold hazards.

What Else To Look For In A Crime Scene Cleanup Company
You may also want to hire a company that has established itself. An experienced company with a strong reputation is always a plus but it could be expensive too. You will do well to balance your needs with what is your budget. There are several companies that offer specific prices such as for death scene clean up categories and suicide clean up categories. Most companies own a website and have round the clock customer service as receptionists.

When looking for a suitable crime scene cleaning service, among the first things you need to do is to scout for price quotes. Crime scene cleanup services usually provide quote after they have examined the crime scene and then they give you a definite quote. Factors that are usually considered include the number of personnel that will be needed to get the job done. It also includes the amount of time that might be needed. The nature and amount of the waste materials that need to be disposed will also be factored in. You can be sure that the more sophisticated equipments needed the more expensive it will get.

Crime Scene Cleanup And Your Insurance
For homeowners, the best approach is always to make sure that crime scene cleanup services clauses and provisions are written down on the contracts or policies. The inclusion of crime cleanup services clauses is very common and has become standard clause in most homeowner’s policy. Make sure that you are covered for this unforeseen event. Make sure that your policy directs the crime scene cleaning company to transact directly with the homeowner insurance company. A crime scene cleaning service is usually a standard clause in many homeowners’ insurance clause. These companies often do the paperwork in behalf of clients.

If for some reason you do not have such coverage by any policies relating to crime scene cleanup on your home, there are ways to keep your expenses controlled.

Finding the right company can be very taxing, especially that you have to deal with the emotional stress stemming from the crime itself, especially with a crime scene involving death.

There are many crime scene cleanup companies in operation nowadays. There are reliable professionals that you can hire and prices are relatively competitive. As of recently, crime-scene cleanup services can cost up to $600 for an hour of their service. A homicide case alone involving a single room and a huge amount of blood can cost about $1,000 to $3,000.

In recent years, crime scene cleaning has come to be known as, "Crime and Trauma Scene Decontamination or CTS. Basically, CTS is a special form of crime scene cleaning focusing on decontamination of the crime scene from hazardous substances such as those resulting from violent crimes or those involving chemical contaminations such as methamphetamine labs or anthrax production. This type of service is particularly common when violent crimes are committed in a home. It is rare that the residents move out of the home after it has become a scene of a crime. Most often, the residents just opt to have it cleaned up. That is why, it is very important to hire the best crime scene cleaning company out there. The place needs to be totally free from contamination of any kind. You have to make sure that the company is able to remove all traces of the violent crime that took place. This includes cleaning biohazards that are sometimes invisible to the untrained eye.

Legally speaking, federal laws state that all bodily fluids are deemed biohazards and you should make sure that the cleanup service company you hire understands this and includes it in the cleanup. These things appear as blood or tissue splattered on a crime scene. You must be able to hire a company that is equipped with special knowledge to safely handle biohazard materials. The company must have the knowledge what to search for in any give biohazard crime scene. For instance, the company should be able to tell clues such that if there is a bloodstain the size of a thumbnail on a carpet, you can bet that there is about a huge bloodstain underneath. Federal and State laws have their own laws in terms of transport and disposal of biohazard waste. Make sure that the company you hire has all the permits necessary.

It will also be a huge plus if you could hire people who not only has the special trainings but also who have the nature to be sympathetic. If you are close to the victim and have the cleaning done at the behest of the victim’s relatives, it would matter that the cleaners tread the site with some level of respect. It is a common site that family members and loved ones are often there at scene. In general, when looking for a suitable crime scene cleaners, you would take into considerations the kind of situation that the crimes scene presents and the demands that it require. Crime scene cleaning companies handle a wide variety of crime scenes and prices may vary from one to the other crime scene and one to the other company.

Each type of scene requires its own particular demands not only to make the crime scene look clean and neat on the surface but to make it germ free, and clean inside and to make it free from all deadly and infectious substances. The cleanup cost for biohazards may vary depending on degree of the bio hazard(s) on the scene. There may even be a category that changes the cleanup pricing which usually involves decomposing bodies and carcasses. Likewise, a cleanup of chemical hazards vary, depending on the amount of chemical hazards as well as the grades i.e. how hazardous the substance is in terms of human contact. Prices are also determined by the number of hours and personnel that it would to get the crime scene cleaned. In addition, the "gross factor" from crime scene involving death and gore needs to be taken under consideration regarding the chemicals that will be used as opposed to those crimes' that do not have gore involved.

Risks of Using In-house Employees for Environmental Cleanups

2009-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

By Gerard M. Giordano, Esq.

In an attempt to save money, property owners may be tempted to use their own Employees to clean up contamination at their facilities in order to comply with state or federal environmental laws. However, there may not be any real savings because when property owners (as employers)do commit to such a venture,they must comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA)regulations that may be applicable. These are designed to protect employees from occupational injuries and illnesses,and failure to comply with these regulations could result in fines that may offset any savings.

A property owner who orders his employees to clean up or work with hazardous substances must comply with a number of precautionary regulations. The most comprehensive is 29 CFR 1910.120, which deals with hazardous waste operations and emergency response. An employer is required to develop and put into writing a safety and health program for any employees engaged in hazardous waste cleanup operations.

The elements of an effective program include requiring an employer to identify and evaluate specific hazards and to determine the appropriate safety and health control procedures to protect employees before any work is initiated. Likewise, protective equipment must be utilized by employees during the initial site entry and, if required,during subsequent work at the site. The employer must also periodically monitor employees who may be exposed to hazardous substances in excess of OSHA ’s regulations.

Once the presence and concentration of specific hazardous substances and health hazards have been established, employees involved in the cleanup operations must be informed of any risks associated with their work. Under certain ircumstances,regular ongoing medical surveillance of employees by a licensed physician, and without cost to the employees or lost pay, may be required.

Numerous other safeguards are also required by OSHA. For example, OSHA’s hazardous communications program, 29 CFR 1910.120, requires an employer to establish and implement a hazard communication program if, during the course of the cleanup, employees may be exposed to hazardous chemicals.

The requirements are essentially the same as those in workplaces where employees are routinely exposed to hazardous chemicals. The program must include container labeling, production of material safety data sheets and employee training. The employer must also provide a full description of the OSHA compliance program to employees, contractors and subcontractors involved with the cleanup operations as well as OSHA,and to any other federal,state or local agency with regulatory authority over the cleanup.

Regulation 29 CFR 1910.120 also requires an employer that retains the services of a contractor or subcontractor to inform them of any identified potential hazards of the cleanup operations. Generally, it is the involvement of employees that triggers an employer’s obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. If contractors were retained, it would be the contractors’ responsibility to comply with these OSHA requirements on behalf of their employees, assuming that the employer
retaining the contractor has neither employees involved in the cleanup nor employees potentially exposed to health hazards arising from the cleanup.

In addition to the contractor’s required compliance with OSHA regulations, it is imperative that a property owner include in any agreement with the contractor that the contractor must comply with all pertinent OSHA regulations. If possible,the agreement should also provide for indemnifications from the contractor to the property owner for claims arising from the cleanup. These indemnifications will be important if the employees of the contractor are injured or subsequently become ill because of such work. The indemnifications should survive the completion of the work. These precautions will help insulate the property owner from both governmental actions and potential third-party claims.

Failure to comply with OSHA regulations on the part of the property owner who uses his own employees to perform a cleanup or work with hazardous substances may result in substantial penalties. Under OSHA, fines can be levied for each violation found by an inspector. These violations can result in non-serious, serious or willful violations with penalties as high as $70,000 for each violation. If a subsequent inspection is performed and violations are found which have not been corrected from an original inspection,daily penalties could be levied resulting in substantial fines.

Compliance with OSHA regulations should be a factor when a property owner decides to use in-house employees for cleanups. In the long run, there may not be any savings to the employer. Furthermore, because of the employer’s lack of familiarity with the OSHA regulations governing the cleanup of hazardous sites,the employer could be subject to fines as a result of its failure to comply with the OSHA regulations.

Therefore, it may be prudent in the long run to retain a company whose business is devoted to doing only cleanups. This company will have the expertise and continuing obligations to protect its employees.

Gerard Giordano is special counsel at the law firm of Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard, P.A., based in Hackensack, NJ. He is a member of the firm’s Environmental Department, and his practice focuses particularly on OSHA matters. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Giordano worked at the U.S. Department of Labor – Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as an industrial hygiene compliance officer.

Life of Grime: Chris Mendoza cleans up crime scenes in the South Bay

2009-02-16T18:26:00.001-08:00

By Hugh Biggar

Life can indeed be nasty, brutish and short. Just ask Crime Scene Cleaners Inc., a company whose business is taking care of life's messes. In blood-red letters, its pick-up trucks advertise its services accidental death, homicides, suicides call 1.800.357.6731.
"People are animals," Neal Smither, founder and president of the private company, says.

He should know. Since 1996, Crime Scene Cleaners has thrived on cleaning up crime scenes, suicides, houses filled with waste and the occasional whale.

"We're not gore-mongers, it's a work proposition," Smither says of the business. "But we don't turn anything down, unless it's off the chart severity."

"You can't put a price on that service," says John Hirokawa, a captain with the Santa Clara County sheriffs' office.

Chris Mendoza, a Crime Scene Cleaners employee in Santa Clara County, also stresses the service side of the work.

"People tell me, if it weren't for you, I don't know what we would do," he says.

Smither, 38, founded Crime Scene Cleaners in 1996 after renting the movie Pulp Fiction. At that point in his life, he had dropped out of Soquel High School to surf, then drifted from the Navy to selling bonds. He was living in San Francisco and considering mortuary school when Pulp Fiction changed his life.

"It was an epiphany," he says of a scene where two gangsters call in a professional known as The Wolf to help clean a bloody car. "I thought to myself, that's a great idea."

Smither placed classified ads in newspapers and created fliers to distribute to Bay Area police stations. After a month, Smither got his first call from the sister of a cancer patient who committed suicide in Marin County.

"I didn't know if I could do it," Smither says now. "I didn't know what to expect or what to charge." Smither bought basic cleaning supplies at a drugstore and arrived with little more than a strong stomach and a willingness to try.

"I remember thinking, this isn't so bad, and it went quickly," he says. He made $175 in an hour and thought, "I'm onto something."

Smither's first wife divorced him because she was embarrassed by the work. He later married his banker. But Crime Scene Cleaners has since boomed by providing a service traditionally performed by police officers, police mechanics and family and friends. Due to blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis C found at crime scenes, the business has also been federally regulated since 1998.

Headquartered in Orinda, Crime Scene Cleaners now has 18 offices throughout the United States; the Bay Area, and especially Santa Clara County, provides most of its local business.

"We routinely call them out," said Lt. John Carr, head of the San Jose traffic investigations unit. "Those folks are out there, scrubbing on their hands and knees. They leave nothing."

Carr said the department used Crime Scene Cleaners in Almaden Valley to clean up after a fatal traffic accident last October.

"We've used the service for quite awhile, ever since AIDS and air-borne pathogens became an issue," Hirokawa says. "It's a safety issue. We used to wash the cars ourselves with rags, hoses and hand sprayers," he says of vomit and other bodily fluids from passengers. These sorts of accidents are not uncommon in police cars (and why the cars have no carpeting). "We would flush it into the drains or put stuff in the garbage, but you can't do that now."

Given the safety concerns and regulations, Crime Scene Cleaners employees receive six months of intensive training in biohazards prior to employment. On the job, they don masks and white suits that cover them from head to toe. Perched on ladders or crouched down on all fours, they scrub with an enzyme that breaks down proteins and sanitizes.

Police officers have traditionally done their own cleaning, but because of greater understanding about blood pathogens, the San Jose police department has given over many of its cleaning duties to Crime Scene Cleaners.

"In the old days, we would take a hose and wash it down the drain," said Sgt. Steve Gracie, supervisor of the crime scene unit. "Attitudes have changed. We didn't think of blood as a biohazard. Now, people treat it differently. It could be infected with disease."

Officers will always be exposed to bloodied and coughing members of the public, but Gracie said that being able to depend on Crime Scene Cleaners to clean up public spaces and their offices, when it warrants, alleviates their job.

"It's better for the officer and for the community," he said. "Crime Scene Cleaners have been very good for us."

It's not always the gory things that get the cleaners out, but definitely the messy ones.

"We used them in our office a few weeks ago, when there was an elderly witness who was inebriated and urinated in the chair," Gracie said.

In addition to cleaning police cars, Crime Scene Cleaners' work includes cleaning up after gang disputes, cleaning waste-filled houses and cleaning motel rooms used by methamphetamine users.

This is especially true when the unusual comes calling. A few years ago Crime Scene Cleaners got a call from officials in Fremont after a dead whale washed up in a flood channel and got stuck. Workers from Crime Scene Cleaners used construction excavation equipment to remove it and buried the whale in a 300-foot pit nearby.

Such situations are typical of the fast thinking the work requires. "I'm improvising all the time," Smither says during an interview in between fielding calls.

One is from a motel employee in Georgia.

"Where is the manager?" Smither barks. "Get him on the phone."

There is a call from one of his employees on a job in Idaho.

"That's going to take three dumpsters, Max," he advises. "Go look at the dumpsters behind a grocery store and find a number to call."

And there is even a call from the local cops. On this morning, the Orinda police need some help with blood found on stairs.

Mendoza, 23, the cleaner largely responsible for Santa Clara County, also constantly improvises and is on call 24 hours a day from Friday through Tuesday.

His workday can include handling corpses to taking apart a room where a crime took place, removing anything--tiling, sinks, mirrors--that could remind someone of an unfortunate incident.

His biggest dislike is the creepy crawlies. "The worst thing for me is the scabies," Mendoza says. "You find them in the squad cars from people's clothes and stuff," he says of the little bugs he finds so disgusting.

"This job teaches you a lot about life," he says.

In addition to the dirty work of cleaning and hauling (waste is either taken to an incinerator in the East Bay or encapsulated in foam and taken to a dump), cleaners also must be able to handle grieving family members and to negotiate prices.

"You can't be a [weak-minded] in this job," Smither says. Most employees generally last about eight months, he says. "You have to be able to go in, assess the scene, use sensitivity and negotiate."

Mendoza, who previously sold electronics at the Santana Row Best Buy, hopes to be an exception to the eight-month standard.

"This is something you can really grow with because most people can't do it," he says. On days he is not working he even volunteers to help clean the morgue as a favor to his friends there. "It isn't disgusting and doesn't bother me at all," he says, "although I do sometimes get nightmares."

Regardless of the assignment, in the Bay Area the work is completed quickly and thoroughly. Both Smither and Mendoza pride themselves on this point.

"Same day, always," Smither says.

In the Bay Area, which for Crime Scene Cleaners stretches from Watsonville to the Napa Valley, this translates into responding to a call within 60 minutes. Nationally, Crime Scene Cleaners responds to calls within 24 hours. It also helped with relief efforts in New Orleans.

"You have to always wear the proper stuff and can't be lazy and cheap shot it," Mendoza says. This includes wearing protective body suits and respirators if necessary, and ripping out floors if needed to clean beneath crime scenes--particularly important for getting rid of odors.

"Once we are done, people are not going to see anything," he says. "People say thanks ... and I hope we never meet again."

Staff writer Michele Leung contributed to this article.

Copyright © Knight Ridder

The economic cost of methamphetamine use in the United States

2009-02-06T22:41:00.001-08:00

Medical Research News

The economic cost of methamphetamine use in the United States reached $23.4 billion in 2005, including the burden of addiction, premature death, drug treatment and many other aspects of the drug, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
The RAND study is the first effort to construct a comprehensive national assessment of the costs of the methamphetamine problem in the United States.

"Our findings show that the economic burden of methamphetamine abuse is substantial," said Nancy Nicosia, the study's lead author and an economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

Although methamphetamine causes some unique harms, the study finds that many of the primary issues that account for the burden of methamphetamine use are similar to those identified in economic assessments of other illicit drugs.

Given the uncertainty in estimating the costs of methamphetamine use, researchers created a range of estimates. The lowest estimate for the cost of methamphetamine use in 2005 was $16.2 billion, while $48.3 billion was the highest estimate. Researchers' best estimate of the overall economic burden of methamphetamine use is $23.4 billion

The study was sponsored by the Meth Project Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to reducing first-time methamphetamine use. Additional support was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"We commissioned this study to provide decision makers with the best possible estimate of the financial burden that methamphetamine use places on the American public," said Tom Siebel, founder and chairman of the Meth Project. "This is the first comprehensive economic impact study ever to be conducted with the rigor of a traditional cost of illness study, applied specifically to methamphetamine. It provides a conservative estimate of the total cost of meth, and it reinforces the need to invest in serious prevention programs that work."

The RAND analysis found that nearly two-thirds of the economic costs caused by methamphetamine use resulted from the burden of addiction and an estimated 900 premature deaths among users in 2005. The burden of addiction was measured by quantifying the impact of the lower quality of life experienced by those addicted to the drug.

Crime and criminal justice expenses account for the second-largest category of economic costs, according to researchers. These costs include the burden of arresting and incarcerating drug offenders, as well as the costs of additional non-drug crimes caused by methamphetamine use, such as thefts committed to support a drug habit.

Other costs that significantly contribute to the RAND estimate include lost productivity, the expense of removing children from their parents' homes because of methamphetamine use and spending for drug treatment.

One new category of cost captured in the analysis is the expense associated with the production of methamphetamine. Producing methamphetamine requires toxic chemicals that can result in fire, explosions and other events. The resulting costs include the injuries suffered by emergency personnel and other victims, and efforts to clean up the hazardous waste generated by the production process.

Researchers caution that their estimates are in some cases based on an emerging understanding of methamphetamine's role in these harms and should be further refined as understanding of these issues matures. The RAND report also identifies costs that cannot yet be adequately quantified.

"Estimates of the economic costs of illicit drug use can highlight the consequences of illegal drug use on our society and focus attention on the primary drivers of those costs," Nicosia said. "But more work is needed to identify areas where interventions to reduce these harms could prove most effective."

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive substance that can be taken orally, injected, snorted or smoked. While national surveys suggest that methamphetamine use is far from common, there is evidence that the harms of methamphetamine may be concentrated in certain regions. One indicator of the problem locally is treatment admissions. Methamphetamine was the primary drug of abuse in 59 percent of the treatment admissions in Hawaii in 2004 and accounted for 38 percent of such admissions in Arizona in 2004.

Crime Scene Steri Clean-Cory Chalmers

2009-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

Sunshine Cleaning (Release date March 13th 2009)

2009-02-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

Sunshine Cleaning is a comedy-drama starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Sunshine Cleaning follows an average family that finds the path to its dreams in an unlikely setting. A single mom and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around - once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) now finds herself a thirty something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) is still living at home with their dad Joe (Alan Arkin), a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes. Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time, the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other…specialized situations. As they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, the sisters find a true respect for one another and the closeness they have always craved finally blossoms. By building their own improbable business, Rose and Norah open the door to the joys and challenges of being there for one another—no matter what—while creating a brighter future for the entire Lorkowski family.

Here’s the Sunshine Cleaning Trailer, hit HQ in the menu bottom right for improved quality. The movie is due out March 13, 2009.

How to Clean Up a Crime Scene

2009-02-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

By Claire Suddath

Nobody forced Alan Emmins to clean up a crime scene. The British journalist had never written about crime and had no experience with anything involving blood. But there was something about Neal Smithers, owner of San Francisco-based Crime Scene Cleaners, that made Emmins want to find out what he was missing. His book, Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners follows Smithers — who started his company after watching Pulp Fiction — from a double murder to a slit-wrist suicide, and all the gruesome, partially-decomposed scenes in between.

What was it like when you saw your first crime scene?
The first one I went into was in a motel bathroom. It was a suicide. There was a lot of blood. I was surprised that it wasn't actually that bad because I'd seen bloody walls and bloody bathrooms on television. It was so impersonal I couldn't relate it to anything.

Were there any aspects of death that you were surprised to learn that you hadn't heard of or thought of before?
I think the actions of the people surrounding the victims are what surprised me the most. When I was working with Neal there was one elderly man we were cleaning up who had decomposed for almost a month. Standing in the driveway was this guy's daughter and grandchild, and they lived within 5 miles of this man. They never even checked in on him. And that's the stuff that's really staggering, the people who stand at the front of the house, arguing about who gets what and hustling the cleaners about cleaning the mess up as quick as possible. All they care about are smells and stains because they want to sell the property as quickly as possible.

How many jobs did Neal do a day?
I think at the time we were averaging 150 jobs a month, but they weren't all deaths. Neal has a lot of deals with hotels and motels, which are a common place to commit suicide. But he also cleaned up vomit in police cars. There are really strict laws about who can clean up fluids in a prison or a police car. I think they stem from this one time when an officer cleaned blood out of the police car and contracted hepatitis, and so he sued the state and got a big payment. Now if somebody bleeds or vomits or even spits in a police car the officers aren't allowed to clean it up. They have to call someone to come and clean it. I know Neal was called in to clean up after a fight in a prison shower where there was quite a lot of blood. So there's quite a mixture of situations, although most of them are suicides.

Can you take me through the general process of what happens when Crime Scene Cleaners gets a call?
First they look at all the objects that should be thrown away. Say the suicide is in the bedroom. Straight away the bedclothes come off, they're going to be thrown away. The mattress, that's going to be thrown away. If there are valuables that can be cleaned, they'll start cleaning them and moving them out of the way. If it's a carpeted floor, there's no cleaning this stuff out of the carpet so they'll roll it up and that will be taken away. Then they'll start scrubbing the walls. They use an enzyme on the walls, it breaks the blood down and makes it easier to clean. And then there floorboards. You can't physically remove all the stains from floorboards so they clean it as best the can and paint a sealant on the top. And that's mostly it. If it's a bedroom, it's pretty easy.

What is the best way to die in terms of leaving as little mess as possible?
Die with someone you know very close by, I guess. And tile floor, absolutely tile floor. A bathroom is definitely the easiest.

So, for the cleaning man's sake, you should expire of natural causes in a bathroom and be found quickly?
Yep, for sure. Although I did see one guy who was murdered and dumped in a bathtub. He decomposed in there for an awful long time and there was nothing easy about that cleanup because he'd been there a month. There was all of this fluid and the drainage system was blocked. It's not always easy to clean up a scene just because it's on a nice ceramic surface.

Was there any point where you thought this is too much, I can't take this I'm gonna go write about something nicer?
Oh yep. I remember going out there and thinking Neal was this ghastly person. His slogan was "Praying for Death." He'd say that every morning he'd wake up and pray for death, and it would just keep coming. He'd get delighted when he received a phone call about a shotgun suicide. I remember thinking he was this mean, horrible character. And then the same thing happened to me. I was trying to write a book that's potentially going to be earning money off of people dying.

Once, nobody died for 8 days. And I caught myself feeling very frustrated because I was researching a book and nobody was dying. Neal noticed and said 'Hey, you're praying for death.' It really jolted me, I thought, 'My God, I'm as bad as Neal.' Then I realized no, I'm actually much worse than Neal. He was invited to the crime scenes; people called him to come and clean the visual remains of a loved one they had lost. As a writer, I was just turning up very voyeuristically and recording these things. I was disturbed by my own thoughtlessness.

Crime & Trauma Scene Bio-Recovery – Growing Pains in a Niche Industry

2009-02-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

by Kent BergLike many people in the restoration industry considering expanding into crime and trauma scene bio-recovery, you may want to know about the trends in the marketplace and who your potential competitors are. However, before I tell you where the industry is and where it is going, let’s look at from where it came… In the mid-to-late 1990s, the crime and trauma bio-recovery industry was in its infancy. There were only a handful of companies providing service as full-time dedicated businesses. As these companies began to market themselves and the media began running articles and interviews, budding entrepreneurs took notice, and a small but steady stream of novices entered the industry. The insurance industry also began to recognize the capabilities of trained and certified companies. There were fewer complaints and callbacks from their insureds, and the frequency of “rip and tear” remediation dropped in favor of proper decontamination and disinfection practices.Today, roughly 12 years into the life of this business, we are seeing families, businesses and industrial customers getting their scenes cleaned up without having to ask untrained and psychologically unprepared employees or family members to undertake these gruesome tasks. But with this influx of new companies has come problems. Since1996 the industry has watched as an incredible influx of new companies try their hand at this unique and macabre business. What was once an open market is rapidly changing. While many areas of the country are still in need of crime scene cleanup companies, many areas are saturated. States like Florida, California, Ohio and New Jersey, and cities like Phoenix, Atlanta, Seattle and Philadelphia are literally teeming with bio-recovery service providers. As more companies enter these markets, there results a dilution of the supply/demand ratio, and thus the newcomers are either going out of business shortly after start-up or they diminish the incomes of the established companies there before them, in turn forcing them to diversify or die. Why is this happening? As a niche market, there are a limited number of scenes that need to be cleaned. Unlike other industries that entice new potential clients to try their services, the bio-recovery industry has to wait for something horrible to happen and either make themselves available or hope for a referral from public safety officials. When there are more bio-recovery companies than horrible events, company owners have to look for other ways to supplement their income. Many companies have entered the fire/water/smoke remediation market, while others have expanded into the mold/lead/asbestos fields. Just as remediation companies have expanded into the crime scene markets, we are seeing many in the crime scene markets enter the traditional abatement/remediation fields in order to survive.So what is the big attraction of crime scene bio-recovery? The lure of big money, no formal education and low start-up costs has attracted a broad variety of players. Like most industries, the quality of service varies widely. Although the American Bio-Recovery Association (www.americanbiorecovery.com) has gained significant recognition and credibility for many in the industry, there is still a disturbing number of companies who fail to comply with federal and state regulations, have received no formal training or industry certification, or have failed to embrace ethical business practices. Unlike many business owners who see crime scene cleanup as a moral calling to provide a service very similar to funeral homes, others see an opportunity to plunder the coffers of the dead and bereaved, often charging obscene fees for shoddy work. Unfortunately, the public is painfully unaware of what constitutes a good company and often believes that these services are regulated and certified by the government. The greatest problem we face with this industry is that it is unregulated in most states, counties, and municipalities. With the exception of Louisiana, New York City, Florida and California, there are no industry-specific regulations, nor am I currently aware of any government entities in that intend to propose legislation in the foreseeable future. With a lack of governmental oversight, it is often ABRA that gets phone calls from the public, insurance adjusters, lawyers, and state attorneys wishing to “report” unsatisfactory experiences with poor service providers. Some of the more unnerving complaints include such tales as: “When our family walked across the ‘professionally decontaminated’ vinyl tiled kitchen floor, blood spurted up between the tiles splattering our shoes” or “After the crew left, we went to remove a pot of chili from the stove and found a three-inch skull fragment floating on top.” There are also stories of scare tactics like, “They told us that due to the biological hazards of airborne contaminants, all of the home contents had to be disposed of including the china, silverware, appliances, everything, and then weeks later we found most of our belongings being sold at a flea market.” Training has also been a hot issue in the industry. Like the companies who make up the industry, the training offered varies widely. Although ABRA-approved training centers provide highly competent, in-depth training programs with ABRA certification, and a few independent for-profit entities reportedly have a good curriculum, many more companies have popped up offering less-than-stellar training. Many service providers say they are “certified” on their Web sites, but don’t say by whom. Many say they are “OSHA Certified,” but that is simply not true: OSHA does not certify companies to do this type of work, they only provide training in safety regulation compliance. On the bright side, the industry as a whole has established itself as a legitimate and needed service. More and more businesses, industries, public safety agencies and social assistance organizations are recognizing what scientists and psychologists have been saying for years, that qualified cleanup companies relieve families and the public from being exposed to disease hazards as well as the psychological trauma associated with these horrific scenes. In fact, government agencies are beginning to initiate contingency contracts in case something should happen on city, county, or federal property, and many are begin to recognize ABRA. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recognizes ABRA’s position in the industry and has sought its assistance regarding the distribution of OSHA compliance materials to the industry.So where do we truly stand as an industry? I like to think we are in our adolescent stage, the rebellious, finding-our-own-way stage. As we mature we will see more professionalism, especially as a more savvy public begin to be more discriminating in seeking out a qualified service provider for their scene cleanup. Even as the economy continues its downturn, we know this is an industry that will not go away, and in all probability a recession will, sadly, generate more cleanups. On the other hand, as the U.S. job market becomes weaker and more people lose their jobs to downsizing, they will look for opportunities that appear lucrative, easy to get into, and don’t require a college education. Many will think that crime and trauma scene bio-recovery is the answer. Where they are geographically, ethically, and educationally will determine if they are right.

Ten Big Concerns in the Bio-Recovery Industry

2009-02-02T15:57:00.001-08:00

by Kent Berg

If you are in, or are contemplating entering, the bio-recovery industry, it’s important to remember this goal: the complete clean up of blood, tissue and other potentially infectious materials. Problem is, many people think that’s the only goal, and so all that is needed is a strong stomach and a mop. In fact, there are companies out there cleaning up scenes with that approach in mind. What we as technicians have to remember, however, is that in order to accomplish our task, there are a number of concerns we must address in order to do the job safely, effectively, and in compliance with the law. Ignoring any of these 10 concerns can cause employees to get sick (potentially with a lifetime of medical bills you will have to pay); lead to lawsuits from employees as well as customers; result in a bad reputation for poor performance; raise the ire of law enforcement agencies, and even lead to government fines.
Pathogenic Microbes These harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi can be present in spilled blood and body fluids as well as in the air. Splashes of blood or body fluids and inhalation of aerosolized blood or fungal spores from the gastrointestinal tract can cause illness. Some viruses, like Hepatitis, can even cause death. Most people are under the impression that these pathogens die when blood dries, but this is not the case. In fact, scientists have found live Hepatitis virus in blood that has been dried for over a month, and they believe it can actually live substantially longer. Protection against these invisible germs is paramount, and requires suits, gloves, face shields and respirators, regardless of how old the blood is. Not just any glove or suit will do, either. To assure that maximum protection is attained, seek out PPE that is specifically rated by the manufacturer or a testing organization like ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) for the job you are performing.

Psychological Trauma Just because someone has gutted a deer, worked in a nursing home or cleaned up after a nosebleed doesn’t mean they are psychologically prepared to clean a trauma scene. These scenes can be horrific: pieces of scalp hanging from the ceiling fan; brain matter splattered on the oil painting of the smiling family; bloody handprints sliding down the wall of a stabbing victim’s apartment; the crying and wailing of the family in the next room as you wipe away the remnants of their loved-one’s last moments. Turnover in this business is usually because of nightmares, inability to sleep, and depression. Staying mentally healthy is an important part of protecting yourself on the job.

Disinfectant Efficacy
Although there are more than 100 antimicrobial products that claim to kill germs, it is imperative to select the right one for the target pathogens you may encounter. Among the those rated to do the job, their true efficacy varies considerably and is subject to surface conditions, temperature, organic load, and even the material the contaminant is on. Disinfectant efficacy is also heavily influenced by the presence of biofilm. Biofilm is produced when bacteria colonize and collectively produce a coating that envelops the entire colony. This coating provides a protective layer under which the bacteria can thrive unaffected by many disinfectants.

Overlooked Contamination You just spent 50 hours cleaning up a bedroom where a father took his own life with a 12-guage shotgun. There was blood, tissue, brain matter and skull fragments covering nearly every square foot of the room and its contents. You were extremely cordial and sympathetic to the family. You used the right equipment and disinfectants. The room now looks great and the family is pleased. But if you have overlooked just one drop of blood, one piece of tissue or small skull fragment (perhaps a tooth behind the dresser), prepare to get a very angry phone call. You may as well not have done anything at all because, although you worked until you nearly dropped, that one overlooked piece of carnage has re-traumatized the family, and they are thinking of calling a lawyer.

Interaction With the Distressed Family Like funeral directors, we often have to interact with the immediate family of the deceased just a few hours after the event. These husbands, wives, parents and children are grieving and trying to cope with the emotional upheaval of an unexpected traumatic loss. Knowing what to say as well as what not to say is critical in establishing a rapport and conveying your sympathy, yet still obtaining the information necessary to do your job. Saying the wrong thing can at the very least get you off on the wrong foot, and possibly get you kicked off the property. Sensitivity and a caring attitude are essential in this business.

Recognizing Evidence
From time to time, technicians will discover evidence at a crime scene. Since we spend a great deal of time scouring the scene from top to bottom, moving furniture, opening drawers and so on, we come across things that may be important to investigators. The key is recognizing what might be related to the case. Obviously, guns, bloody knives and bullets should be reported, but it is with the more subtle things that you have to ask yourself, “Could this be important?” A roll of duct tape on the scene of a stabbing may have no significance, but what if you found one at the scene of an abduction? Knowing what the crime was can help you “tune-in” on items that may be crucial to an investigation.

Unreleased Scenes You get a phone call from an apartment complex manager who wants you to clean up a shooting scene in apartment 2-C. You rush over and the manager signs your contract. Hours later you pack up your truck, confident that you have cleaned and disinfected every square inch of the apartment. The next day you get a call from an irate police investigator who says the scene had not been released yet, and you have destroyed his crime scene. He is threatening to charge you with obstruction of justice! Make absolutely sure that crime scenes have been reported, investigated and released before doing the job.

Legal Issues As employers, we must adhere to the many OSHA regulations that apply to our trade. The most obvious is 29CFR1910.1030 the Bloodborne Pathogen Regulation, but there are many, many more, including the Respiratory Protection Regulations; Lockout-Tagout; Confined Space; Ladders; General Safety; and Personal Protective Equipment. These regulations were designed to protect our employees and violations can result in stiff penalties, lawsuits and damage to our credibility. In addition, we must employ contracts that provide protection to the property owner as well as the company and technicians. We must know who can sign our contracts, and we must have the appropriate insurance to protect us if anything goes wrong.

Migration of Liquids
Blood travels like water, but many people, including some technicians, tend to clean up only what they see (“If the red is gone, I’ve done my job.”). Unfortunately, blood runs under vinyl tile, under baseboards, down the seams of hardwood flooring, through OSB, and wicks up into drywall and down into concrete. Wiping blood off a surface is only the beginning of the remediation process. Most jobs are more complicated than they initially seem because most of the contamination is hidden. Just a few ounces of blood can penetrate a carpet, go through the pad onto the underlayment, find a seam and seep down the seam into the plywood subfloor. More than a few ounces can travel from an attic to a basement if the conditions are right. Knowing what to look for is the key to combating liquid migration.

Decomposition and Odors
Understanding the nature of human body decomposition and the liquids and odors produced is key to our business. Putricine and cadaverine are composed of a variety of chemicals, fats, bacteria and minerals that pose challenges for the bio-recovery technician. Understanding what chemicals to use, what home contents can be saved, and what the true hazards of the contamination are goes a long way in restoring the property quickly and economically.
As with any industry, there are always critical concerns that must be addressed in order to provide the best service possible. For the bio-recovery technician, failing to address any of these concerns can result in a very poor outcome, both for the family and your business. Proper training is of paramount importance, and certification from a nationally recognized organization will help assure that every scene is handled properly.

Kent Berg is the Director of the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists, an international crime and trauma scene cleanup training center certified by the American BioRecovery Association (ABRA). He is also a consultant and expert witness in the field of crime and trauma scene biorecovery. Kent can be reached at (864) 855-3400 or at www.NIDStraining.com