Biological hazard

Why do we have Crime Scene Cleaners?

This is an important question. The short answer is this: It is now easier to catch a disease from blood than previously. Blood-borne pathogen's have always been with us and have always diversified in nature. Now, blood-borne pathogen's have become more dangerous and easier to contract. So the business field known as Crime Scene Cleanup has grown to serve the needs of blood cleanup for residential, commercial, and industrial environments. Also, Crime Scene Cleanup, as written about earlier, is a phrase that glamorizes trauma cleanup.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, we learned about HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Disease, which becomes AIDS as it progresses. AIDS is an acronym and stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This disease spread for a number of years in the US before the US Government decided to recognize it. The government refused to get involved because it appeared that "AIDS" was a "homosexual" disease. So there was some bigotry involved with its recognition. In that time, it became obvious that something serious needed to be done.

People were dying in increasing numbers, and the manner of their deaths was quite unusual. They were dying because their bodies could no longer standup against minor and major illnesses. Women were contracting the disease from their husbands and boy friends at the rate of 1 to 15. That is, women were 15 times more likely to contract HIV from sexual intercourse with a male than vice versa.

So OSHA now set rules for employers to ensure that their employees were protected from needle-stick during work. Health employees were the most obvious group of US workers at risk, but these rules are applied to most employees in the private sector. Because of this, no one can clean a bloody environment or be involved with work involving possible exposure to blood or OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Matter) without blood-borne pathogen training. See your American Red Cross for a professional trainer.

HIV is not the only pathogen out there. In fact, Hepatitis C is every bit as bad as HIV. These and other diseases will be written about at another time.

What is probably important for those interested in becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner," to this writer's knowledge, is that there is no "certification" needed to clean a bloody scene. So if a school owner or a Crime Scene Cleanup business tells the reader that they must be "certified," the reader needs to ask, "Certified by whom?". Some states have certain requirements for handling and disposing of blood and OPIM. These state regulations should be taken very seriously.

Blood-borne pathogen training is usually the first step in most states, if not the only step to becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner."

It is important, in this writer's mind, that as many people as possible become trained in this field of cleaning. The "writing is on the wall," so to speak. Diseases of unknown origin and magnitude will join us in the 21st Century because of Global Warming. Terrorism will probably be another source of creating catastrophic trauma events. So learn to cleanup blood. Whatever you call yourself is not important. It is the skills that matter.

Perhaps it is time for the public schools to begin teaching these skills.
For certain, the public school systems needs to orient their lessons toward a more ecologically centered approach. Students need to learn about ecological relationships early in their academic career. The importance of seeing nature's relationships ought to be taught: Earth, air, water, biology, ecology.

In summary, blood carrying diseases has spread due to nature's diversity and government negligence. Crime scene cleanup became profitable because rules now exist to cleanup some bloody environments. Bloodborne pathogen training is required to clean bloody environments (American Red Cross). Many people need to be trained because of catastrophic events. Life-long learning is important, and some "schools" need to be avoided.

See the next blog writing: Starting your own Crime Scene Cleanup Business - The Reality
Eddie Evans