Crime Scene Cleanup Training Myths

The Myths:

Myth 1) “Employees who clean up crime scenes require extensive on-the-job training.”

Myth 2) “The crime scene cleanup industry is not a federally regulated industry; the level of training provided to crime scene cleaners is ultimately left up to the company for whom they work.”

Myth 3) “Any crime scene cleanup company may display the OSHA logo on their website and in printed materials.”

Myth 4) “Any object that is contaminated with biohazardous material MUST be disposed of as medical waste.”

Myth 5) “You must be a member of a particular organization to be successful in the bio recovery crime scene cleanup industry.”

These myths are intentionally misleading and false.

The Truths:

Truth about myth 1) A person cannot work on a site that contains “occupational risk” without first being trained in the proper OSHA regulations so that the person can properly protect themselves from these occupational risks.

Truth about myth 2) The crime scene cleanup bioremediation industry is federally regulated.

Here is the definition of the word “regulate”:

a : to govern or direct according to rule
b (1) : to bring under the control of law or constituted authority (2) : to make regulations for or concerning regulate the industries of a country.

Do you need a federal license to perform this work? No, but there are thousands and thousands of federal regulations that ARE FEDERAL LAW (29 CFR Part 1910). (Here’s a link to those regulations, so you can read them yourself.) These regulations are in place to PROTECT employees BEFORE they are exposed to on-the-job hazards.

Truth about myth 3) No organization EXCEPT OSHA may display the OSHA logo. Any private company displaying the OSHA logo on their website or in their printed materials is in violation of United States trademark law. These companies who claim to uphold high ethical standards are blatantly breaking the law.

This is what OSHA says about a company using its logo, “The OSHA logo is the property of the United States Department of Labor, and Department policy only allows its use on OSHA and Departmental materials. The OSHA logo is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and carries all of the legal protections afforded by federal trademark registration. OSHA cannot approve, endorse, or promote the products or services of others, nor does the agency allow the use of its logo to endorse private entities, products or services.”

Any company using the OSHA logo on their website to impress the public on how professional they are is actually showing the public that they feel federal law does not apply to them.

Truth about myth 4) People who say this are either ignorant or trying to make as much profit as possible. Most items can be properly cleaned and decontaminated and used again. Think about it; does a hospital dispose of every bed sheet that has a tiny amount of blood on it? Of course not.

Truth about myth 5) This is just marketing by these organizations. The largest most successful bio recovery crime scene clean up companies are not members of any particular organization, except maybe the Better Business Bureau.