Crime scene cleanup

Crime scene cleanup is professional cleaning of a crime scene after the investigation.

Usage

Television productions like Crime Scene Investigation have added to the popularity of the term Crime Scene Cleanup. Australia, Canada, and England have added the term to their professional cleaning terminology.

The generic terms for Crime Scene Cleanup include trauma cleaning, biohazard recovery, crime and trauma scene decontamination, (CTS Decon, a term coined by Michael J. Tillman, founder of Amdecon[1]), blood cleanup, and bio cleaning. The State of California refers to individuals that practice this work as a profession as Trauma Scene Waste Management Practitioners.

Types of cleanup

A crime scene cleanup may involve a single blood loss event following a burglary, battery, or homicide. Companies also clean suicides, unattended deaths, teargas damaged environments, and other crime and trauma scenes. Larger crime scenes involve terrorist attacks, mass murder scenes, and the cleanup of anthrax and other biochemicals.

Crime Scene Cleanup companies may also clean bird and rodent infested areas referred to as "unsanitary dwellings," "packrat houses," and "filthy houses". The Crime Scene Cleaners' experience and equipment more suits this type of cleaning than a typical cleaning company's equipment and experience. Decontaminating areas frequented by potentially deadly viruses requires training and experience.

Safety concerns

Blood-borne disease is always a safety concern. Appropriately, military and medical-like standards are invoked when cleaning soiled scenes. Regulatory standards are set by OSHA with the sole purpose of protecting the safety of employees who are exposed to health and safety risks when performing this work. Besides the Federal Government's OSHA standards, many state Health, OSHA or EPA departments have created similar standards and regulations. Similarly, the Center for Disease Control establishes standards and regulations for working with blood soiled environments as well as exposure reporting.

OSHA's Purpose:

29CFR Part 1910 OSHA General Industry Regulations § 1903.1. The Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (84 Stat. 1590 et seq., 29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) requires, in part, that every employer covered under the Act furnish to his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees. The Act also requires that employers comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under the Act, and that employees comply with standards, rules, regulations and orders issued under the Act which are applicable to their own actions and conduct. The Act authorizes the Department of Labor to conduct inspections, and to issue citations and proposed penalties for alleged violations. The Act, under section 20(b), also authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to conduct inspections and to question employers and employees in connection with research and other related activities. The Act contains provisions for adjudication of violations, periods prescribed for the abatement of violations, and proposed penalties by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, if contested by an employer or by an employee or authorized representative of employees, and for judicial review. The purpose of this Part 1903 is to prescribe rules and to set forth general policies for enforcement of the inspection, citation, and proposed penalty provisions of the Act. In situations where this Part 1903 sets forth general enforcement policies rather than substantive or procedural rules, such policies may be modified in specific circumstances where the Secretary or his designee determines that an alternative course of action would better serve the objectives of the Act.

Business

Crime Scene Cleanup is a small business activity in most cases. At times small businesses, such as carpet cleaning and water damage companies add Crime Scene Cleanup to diversify their activities. Unfortunately these types of add-on companies are giving no credibility to the issues of critical incident stress syndrome and some of the persons performing this work may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Amdecon, Inc. [2], was the industry’s first company to offer SEC compliant franchise opportunities.

Methods

The crime scene cleaners' work begins when the coroner's office or other official, government body releases the "scene" to the owner or other responsible parties. Only when the police investigation has completely terminated on the contaminated scene may the cleaning companies begin their task.

Standard operating procedures for the crime scene cleanup field often include military-like methods for the decontamination of internal and external environments. Universal precautions recognized World-wide are the cautionary rule-of-thumb for this field of professional cleaning.

Authorities

Noted authorities in the field of Crime Scene Cleanup include OSHA 501 Trainer, Michael J. Tillman a Certified Safety & Health Official and founder of Amdecon Inc.[3]. Mr. Tillman was the first in this industry to offer training that used real blood and tissue in crime scene mock-ups and OSHA compliant biorecovery distance learning.[4] Dale Cillian who in 1985 was the first person to perform biohazard cleaning as a business, creating the bio-recovey industry. Dale also wrote the first bio-recovery technician test based on the first bio-recovery training manual written by Kent Berg. [5].Don M. McNulty, currently writes for CleanFax and Cleaning Management Magazines and was the first to offer training and certification in public seminars [6]. Kent Berg is also an authority in the field. Kent Berg's contributions include a national training institute [7], the first comprehensive training manuals for the industry, and the founding of the American BioRecovery Association.

Organizations

Generally recognized organizations for this field of cleaning include the American Bio-recovery Association, ABRA, The North American Decontamination Commission NADCOM and the and the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification, IICRC. ABRA is the largest membership organization in the USA for trauma scene cleaners. The IICRC is a certifying body for the cleaning trade in general. American Society of Bio Recovery Technicians along with the Center For Bio Recovery Safety And Education Resources are working hard with local, state and federal government to provide education to their employees, the public and business communities.