How Crime-scene Clean-up Works, Crime Scene cleaning in Woolwich NJ, Crime Scene cleaning in Washington Township NJ,

10/9/2017 (Permalink)

How Crime-scene Clean-up Works, Crime Scene cleaning in Woolwich NJ, Crime Scene cleaning in Washington Township, NJ.

The site of a messy death poses dangers not everyone can see. The area affected has to be truly clean, not just apparently clean.

Cleaning up after a violent death can take anywhere from one hour to 40 hours or more. Cleaners use hospital-grade disinfectant to wipe or scrub every drop of blood from all surfaces, including counters, ceilings, walls, light fixtures, glass trinkets, family pictures, artwork and appliances.

In a "decomp," the scene is usually not as spread out, but a decomposing body can be even more gruesome than a shooting or stabbing. A body that has been deceased for days, weeks or months has gone through some changes.

The scene of a methamphetamine lab, on the other hand, typically doesn't have the "gross factor" of a death scene, but it's often a lot more dangerous to clean up.

In terms of health risks, a meth lab clean-up is about as scary as it gets. The laundry list of poisons used to make street-grade methamphetamine (including acetone, methanol, ammonia, benzene, iodine and hydrochloric acid) leaves a toxic residue that coats and infuses every surface and stays in the air. Most of these poisonous substances are absorbed through the skin, making a meth lab one of the most dangerous places a person can walk into. The scene remains toxic indefinitely unless it's properly cleaned – an apartment that housed a meth lab can make its tenants sick a decade after the lab has been removed.

Proper clean-up of a meth lab involves disposing of everything porous and everything that can't be submerged in detoxification chemicals (several times). Crime-scene cleaners get rid of all furniture, cabinetry, light fixtures, carpeting, electronics, basically everything that isn't part of the structure. And in the worst cases, they also dispose of most of the structure – they sometimes have to pull up all of the flooring and gut the walls, removing all of the drywall until nothing remains but studs.

Regardless of the type of scene, the final step in a clean-up is disposing of the evidence. You can't put hazardous or biohazardous waste in a regular trash dump, so transport and disposal can be a big percentage of a clean-up bill. Crime-scene cleaners need a special permit to transport that waste, and they have to pay special fees to dispose of it. In the case of human remains, they have to pay (typically by the pound) to burn it in a medical-waste incinerator. Some incinerators have minimum amounts they'll burn, so the cleaning company might have to pay to store the refuse in a sealed, refrigerated area until they've collected the minimum amount. In the case of poisonous chemical waste, you can only dump it in special areas not accessible to the public, which incurs additional fees.

Crime-scene cleaners tread a delicate line between detachment and sensitivity, and not everyone can do it. Depressives are probably not great candidates for the work. Empaths shouldn't apply, either.

Most of this preparation occurs through the crime-scene clean-up company, but it may also include training and certification programs offered by a trade group, like the American Bio-Recovery Association, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

A job might require eight hours of scrubbing in a plastic suit in close quarters in summer heat, as well as breaking through walls and moving furniture. The work is sporadic, but you're on call 24/7 tragedy has no schedule, which means you have no schedule, so you're looking at a potentially exhausting job. People burn out pretty quickly.

Contact a Certified and Trained Crime Scene Cleaning Contractor, for your Crime Scene Project.