subject: Legal, Safety and Environmental Considerations of Crime Scene Cleanup [print this page] Legal, Safety and Environmental Considerations of Crime Scene Cleanup
The field of crime scene clean up is oftenpracticed by companies that also perform blood, homicide, suicide, meth lab, odor removal and staph infection cleanups. The perils of improper crime scene clean up include legal, environmental and safety problems. Finding a company that will manage all of these perils can be difficult.
Beginning in 1969 Congress began legislating large-scale legislativeframeworks such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act toaddress overwhelming problems of pollution and the contamination oflakes and rivers throughout our country.The development of the EPAaccelerated the banning and regulation of the discharge of thousandsof toxic or hazardous substances. Many states and municipalitiesfollowed suit in successive decades to regulate local pollutionemissions and demand that private individuals and businesses safelydispose of a bevy of chemicals and discharges.
As the field of medicine has expanded to understand more aboutthe dangers ofbiohazardous substances, they have fallen into the realm of EPA regulation. These regulations apply to both disposal and transportation of these substances. It is important to find acleanup company thatunderstands and follows these guidelines because with EPA,problems of complianceroll back up hill to the generator of the substances. Accordingly, publicagencies and private landowners have each become knowledgeable of thenecessity to utilize the services of professional crime scene clean up companies to ensure they do not suffer such exposure to unnecessarylegal and liability troubles.
Additionally, OSHA, has recognized the same issues of safety in work environments apply as that of disposal safety issues andEPA. OSHA has the power to fine employers that fail to properly train and safeguard their employees when dealing with biohazardous substances. Employeers, such as hotels and apartment complexes rarely have employees properly trained and equipped to handle death and accident scenes that involve blood or other bodily fluids. Therefore it is imperative that they hire a crime scene company that does have the proper training and follows OSHA guidlines when cleaning biohazards on their properties.
Last, most companies that would need a cleanup tend to see things as a cost analysis issue. Unfortunately for them and for the public, they forget to factor in the liability cost. If they are caught disposing of biohazardous substances improperly or an employee or client becomes sick as a result of improper cleaning or disposal, the liability can be in the millions. It is cheaper in the long run to just do it correctly and hire a professional company to handle any of the things falling under the heading of crime scene cleaning.
This information was originally published as part of the Crime Scene Cleanup blog athttp://www.advancedbio-treatment.com/blog. For more insight into the world of crime scene cleanup, follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crime.scene.cleaners.
