Cleaning up after most crimes is left to private sector to accomplish
Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2005
Trent Grubbs of Heber Springs describes his first job after opening his own cleaning business as a nightmare.
“The dining room, kitchen and adjoining living room were covered in blood,” he said. “The first one was the worst one.”
His company, Arkansas Crime Scene Cleanup Inc., is not the typical maid or janitor service. It specializes in cleaning up after suicides, homicides and decomposing bodies. It’s a job Grubbs, 37, says is a “much needed service.”
His first job was cleaning up after a suicide, and that first job has stuck in his mind as the most gruesome he’s seen. It took him and his wife, Tanya, about 10 hours to clean the residence.
Grubbs remembers thinking that “every job can’t be like this.”
Companies like Arkansas Crime Scene Cleanup have opened across the country in recent years. Grubbs began his business in spring 2004 and is the only Arkansas-based company billing itself as professional crime-scene cleaners.
The company’s motto is, “Because you shouldn’t have to.”
The industry has gotten attention from television shows such as the CSI series, and businesses have been criticized for advertising the fact that they clean up what dead bodies leave behind. One such business in the Dallas area advertised on a billboard with a chalk outline of a dead body. Grubbs chooses to advertise discreetly in the phone book and relies on word-of-mouth.
Only a handful of states regulate the industry, even though the first question people ask after the police and coroner leave is, “Who’s going to clean this up ?” Grubbs said.
The Little Rock Police Department doesn’t tell people what to do with whatever is left behind after their homes or businesses have been the scene of a crime, said Sgt. Terry Hastings, public information officer for the department.
“We turn that back over to the owner once we finish with it, as far as a crime scene, and it’s up to the owner to clean it up or hire a company,” he said.
Spokesmen for the state Department of Environmental Quality and the state Department of Health and Human Services said they do not regulate businesses that specialize in crime-scene cleanup. They said cleaning up after a murder, suicide, accident or decomposing body in a private home or unregulated business is not formally covered by their departments.
“Our jurisdiction covers the proper disposal of medical waste from hospitals and nursing homes,” said Ann Wright, a spokesman for the Health Department. The department also regu- lates waste disposal from such businesses as tattoo parlors and funeral homes.
The department does suggest, however, that people who need a bloody scene cleaned hire a private contractor who has trained employees and is experienced in trauma cleanup.
“If this is not possible and there are any of the following present : human tissue, blood, regulated bodily fluids or items heavily contaminated with blood or regulated bodily fluids, the owner, or otherwise responsible party, should containerize all of these items in a rigid leak-proof container for safe storage and transport to an acceptable disposal facility,” the department said in a statement.
Surfaces containing residue from the waste should be thoroughly disinfected, cleaned and sealed, if necessary, before being used again, and if the surfaces are too heavily contaminated to clean, they should be disposed of, too, the department said. If further assistance is needed, employees with the department’s Division of Health Medical Waste Program are available to help guide those cleaning up trauma scenes to make sure the waste is disposed of safely.
Most homeowners insurance will cover the cleanup after a deductible is paid, Grubbs said. And the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Program administered by the attorney general’s office will reimburse up to $ 3, 000 for survivors or dependents of homicide victims to pay for cleanup.
The cost will vary depending on the severity of the cleanup job, said Grubbs, who charges by the hour but wouldn’t say how much.
Those in the business of cleaning up crime scenes must follow federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations for employees who will be exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials, said Paul Hansen, OSHA’s area director in Little Rock.
OSHA standards say workers who clean up infectious material must be trained, have a written exposure control plan, and be given a method of removing and storing biohazardous waste properly. Employers must also provide appropriate personal protective equipment, such as face shields and gloves, and make available the hepatitis-B vaccine as well as post-exposure evaluation and follow-up.
Arkansas Crime Scene Cleanup, which consists of Trent and Tanya Grubbs and two part-time employees, says it follows all OSHA regulations and also handles waste collected from a scene as if it were state-regulated medical waste, even though it doesn’t have to. Armed with protective gear and sanitizing chemicals, employees contain the waste, label it as biohazardous and take it to a medical waste facility to be incinerated.
“You can’t put that stuff on the curb,” Tanya Grubbs said of the waste that could be contaminated with such diseases as HIV or hepatitis.
The couple said some companies in the industry are called “bleach cowboys” because they clean everything with bleach and don’t take necessary precautions to protect themselves and others from biohazardous waste.
Trent Grubbs thinks the industry needs to be regulated in the state.
“Go by a day or two after there’s been a big homicide in town. Go by and look at the Dumpster outside that building and look at the bloody carpet hanging out of the Dumpster. That’s my big pet peeve,” he said.
For instance, neighboring Louisiana developed the Bio-Recovery Technician Certification Commission last year to oversee the cleanup businesses, and California requires the businesses to register with the state Medical Waste Management Program. Companies in those states can be fined or closed for violating registration or waste laws.
Trent and Tanya Grubbs have taken a 40-hour training course and are certified for dealing with bloodborne pathogens. Trent Grubbs has been in the military for 16 years. He was active duty for four years during the first Persian Gulf War and then served in the Reserve for 11 years. He is now a drill sergeant in the Arkansas National Guard.
During his military career he has worked in law enforcement and the medical field as a certified emergency medical technician and medic. He earned his master’s degree in criminal justice and is also now an insurance adjuster.
The two part-time employees with the company have military backgrounds as well.
Trent and Tanya Grubbs say they can handle cleaning up the blood and gore.
“I’m there to clean and try to focus on the job,” Tanya Grubbs said, though she admits she can’t eat for the rest of the day after cleaning up blood.
“Sometimes you objectify it so much that you forget that what you’re cleaning up used to be a person that means something to somebody,” Trent Grubbs said.
The hard part for them is seeing photographs at a job site of the deceased with their families and friends.
“That slaps you in the face. That reminds you,” he said.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
