Hazardous material cleanup: Companies clean up after crimes, deaths

It's not a pretty job, but somebody has to do it.

When crime, suicide, accident or natural death occurs, somebody has to clean up the scene. Increasingly, because of health hazards including blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis and HIV, the people who handle such cleanup tend to be professionals trained in handling hazardous materials.

It's a tough job, as well as a risky one, and one that requires sympathy and humanity in the face of tragedy.

Risk and exposure

Employees who clean up crime, accident or death scenes face the risk of exposure to many diseases including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and hepatitis B or C.

The levels of risk are established by the Centers for Disease Control, said Amber Hogan, senior industrial hygienist for the OSHA Office of Health Enforcement.

"For Hepatitis B the risk is about 30 percent," Hogan said. This means anyone exposed to infected blood has a 30 percent chance of getting Hepatitis B if they are not vaccinated. Hepatitis B can live up to a week on a surface and much longer if it is in a pool of blood.

Hepatitis C has a 3 percent chance of transmission and HIV has a 0.3 percent chance of transmission.

According to the CDC, 25 percent of HIV infected persons are also infected with hepatitis C. Hogan said the biggest worry for exposed employees is hepatitis C because currently there is not a vaccination or cure for it.

While the risk is not new, companies are realizing what it could mean if an employee was infected. Southern Cleaning quit hazardous materials cleanup, now focusing on storm, water and fire damage only.

"We've got to take care of our people. I didn't even look into (the regulations) I just knew it was time to quit," said Steven Tuhey, owner of Southern Cleaning. "Just imagine if a little fleck got in your eye would that carry (the disease) on? Could you get hepatitis out of it? It doesn't even have to be AIDS, it could be one of many things anymore. A dollar is just not worth certain things."

Companies that specialize in environmental cleanup, like Leigh Environmental, Safety and Health, and Sunbelt Environmental Services, said business has increased when it comes to trauma cleanup because fewer companies are willing to face the risk.

"As far as the cleaning industry goes my personal opinion is that as time progresses it will probably reach a point where the average cleaning company would decline such a job and refer it to a hazardous materials company," said Steve Jones, owner of Mr. Power Clean. His company does some hazardous material clean up.

Environmental companies

Leroy Schaefer, owner of Sunbelt Environmental, said the company first got into the trauma cleanup business after receiving a call from a food company in Springfield.

"A major Fortune 500 client called after an accident (resulting in a death) at the plant," Schaefer said. "At that time we didn't plan on doing (trauma cleanup), but the place had to be really clean and (that) involved power washing the entire room."

Schaefer said because of the work done in that situation, he began getting inquiries about services involving other types of trauma cleanup, and now about 5 percent of the company's business comes from trauma-scene cleanup.

Dwight Leigh, owner of Leigh Environmental, said trauma cleanup goes along with the other types of clean up his employees are trained to do. Russ Chapman, manager of ServiceMaster Cleanworks, said his company provides the service because of the need.

"When something like this happens it is like a fire or water damage situation we ought to have a quick response. I mean if you've lost a loved one and this has happened, it needs to be taken care of as soon as possible so the family can take care of the personal effects. (We try to) take care of what needs to be done and hopefully get (the family) through this tough time in their life," Chapman said.

Sunbelt has recently started doing more advertising for its biohazard services.

"The reason we set out to do it was not because we wanted to sell more, it was because someone has to do it," Schaefer said. " It is difficult to market, because you don't want it on a billboard. You want to be as humanistic as you can."

In most cases, companies like Sunbelt, Leigh Environmental and ServiceMaster receive requests for service from insurance companies, disaster restoration companies, funeral homes and police.

Training and certification

OSHA's blood-borne pathogens standard, which became effective in 1992, was set up to help prevent exposure to blood and potentially infectious materials.

"The standard is written in such a performance-based language that it can be easily tailored to whatever the environment is," OSHA's Hogan said "But our primary controls include good work practice and personal protective equipment as well as disinfection and sterilization."

In many cases companies require certification for employees who are exposed to blood and other biohazards.

Sunbelt employees go through 40 hours of biohazard training plus at least eight hours of refresher training each year to stay certified. Out of 28 certified employees at Sunbelt, five of them are certified in blood or crime-scene cleanup. Leigh Environmental has four certified employees who have completed 40 hours of initial training.

At Mr. Power Clean, even employees who do not normally do crime scene cleanup are trained on how to deal with blood.

"When we do (blood cleanup), we wear the paper suits, the rubber gloves and we take the necessary precautions. Even though we (may) know that the contaminates are not HIV positive," Jones said. Steam cleaning employees are normally certified in carpet remediation, which includes training on cleaning bodily fluids.

Providing training on how to deal with the emotional impact of a situation is also needed for trauma cleanup.

Bruce Trimble, senior environmental consultant for Sunbelt, said one of the most difficult things as a consultant is talking with clients after a tragic event.

"Some of these people have really sad stories, and you just can't go in and start working right away. You have to maintain a professional relationship but also have to be sympathetic to the client," Trimble said.

Before a new Sunbelt employee is hired, he or she is instructed on what the job entails and informed that if an employee cannot handle a situation involving blood, arrangements can be made.

"If (employees) start to feel bad or queasy, they can leave the scene," Trimble said. "You never know how it will effect an employee mentally."

Chapman said for employees going out to a trauma site for the first time, cleanup can be difficult, but training on what to expect does help. Leigh said he asks his employees if they want to go on the clean up and also provides extra pay for those who do. The job may be difficult at first, Leigh said, but over time it becomes easier.

Before a cleaning unit enters the scene, Chapman said he performs tests on the area so employees are fully aware of the risk.

"When we do something of that nature ... we go in there and do some air quality testing; we do blood-borne pathogen testing. (Samples) have to be sent out to a lab and when (test) come back it give us a protocol of what needs to be done," Chapman said.

Trimble said he analyzes each cleaning project before other employees enter. While the company does not test material before cleaning, Trimble said employees are told always to "assume the worst."

Cost

Cleanup involving blood can be time-consuming and costly.

Biohazardous items, like blood, have to be bagged as medical waste and disposed of through a medical waste company. Companies face extra costs because of the number of disposable items that can only be used once.

"My charge may or may not (be) a little bit more, but we have to do it safely by Greene County standards and dispose of it properly," Chapman said.

Some items can be disposed of at the Springfield Sanitary Landfill after they are sterilized.

Making sure employees are healthy is also an important and costly area for companies.

For any employee with potential exposure to blood, OSHA requires a one-time Hepatitis B vaccination; any other precautions taken are at the company's discretion.

"We have to do medical surveillance, which is a minimum of a yearly physical. It involves blood testing, sometimes X-rays and a real thorough physical to make sure (employees) are capable of wearing respirators. The testing and the medical surveillance is quite costly," Karen Schaefer said.

Insurance premiums for biohazard cleanups add to the business expense. Schaefer said Sunbelt's insurance premiums of $125,000 take care of any liability claims a client might make after a cleanup. The premiums provide $2 milion of general liability coverage with a $4 million umbrella.

It is this claim risk that is of greatest concern, Jones said.

"The liability for something like that, unless you are set up and insured, I would think it would make it something you would want to pass on it," Jones said. "You have to be cautious in the sense that if somebody doesn't like what you are doing, I would imagine all they have to do is make a couple of phone calls and next thing you know you are being swarmed with auditors and OSHA regulators wanting to dig into what you are doing."