October 29, 2007
Strong stomachs
are a must in this profession. Whether it's scrubbing blood from the cement or picking skull fragments from out of the wall, these hardworking techs deal with the aftermath of violent crimes.
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And they earn every cent. Damn.
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Fascinating article. I learned something about meth labs today!
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Thank god for these people, honestly. A close friend had a young relative shoot himself in the head, and the family wound up cleaning up the mess. There's no amount of money that wouldn't be worth it to make that part of a messy death go away.
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I keep hoping for a crime scene cleanup segment on "Dirty Jobs", but they won't do it. Too gruesome even for cable.
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They feaured one such company on Insomniac with Dave Attell. They spent the whole episode with them as opposed to the usual format of visiting several businesses in once city. Absolutely fascinating. I would imagine that the burnout rate on the job is rather high.
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Indeed: The average time a person spends as a cleaner is eight months. People burn out pretty quickly, and both employers and employees need to be on the lookout for signs of Critical Incident Stress Syndrome (CISS) and Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD).
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There was a show called Man's Work, the premise was some slacker's trying to work at really difficult, demanding occupations like canadian logger, coast guard, artic ocean crab fisher, etc., one was about being a crime scene cleaner. Ugh. Yes, there's always a job worse than even the worst one has ever had.
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Here's a link to a This American Life episode with a segment on crime scene cleaners.
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Bleah
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Just pretend it's hamburger.
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Oh, and BRAAAAAAAINS!