BIO-HAZARDOUS WASTE:
A CRIME SCENE PERSPECTIVE
by M/Sgt Hayden B. Baldwin,
Retired
Illinois State Police
As crime scene technicians perform their daily
duties what bio-hazards are they encountering? How are they safely
disposing of the contaminated items? What are bio-hazards in
relation to crime scene processing? What could be hazardous to his
health or the health of others? All of these questions have two points in
common. The safety of people and the civil liability of police
departments, including their officers and supervisors.
First the issue of "What is bio-hazardous in
crime scenes? Think about the last time you entered a Death
Investigation scene where there was blood everywhere. How did you
enter that scene? No matter how much blood there was on the floor
you probably stepped in it, transferring the blood to your shoes.
When you left the crime scene where did you go? Everywhere you went
you ran the risk of transferring that blood onto other items. What
bio-hazard is this? Simply put, you just ran the risk of
transferring communicable diseases to others not even associated
with the crime scene.
O.K., You wore protective coverings on your
shoes and you wore protective clothing, including disposable latex
gloves to protect yourself from contamination and from
contaminating the scene. Disposable is the key word here. Where did
you dispose of those items? Were they placed in a container clearly
marked as bio-hazardous waste or did you find the closest trash
container and throw them away?
What about all the utensils that you used in
processing this scene? The pipets, scissors, razor blades,
tweezers, etc. What did you do with those items? Did you "dispose"
of them or clean them with antiseptics before leaving the scene? Or
did you just throw them back into your evidence kit awaiting the
next scene.
Unfortunately we as crime scene technicians
have little or no knowledge of the health of the victim we come
into contact with. There are no standard tests performed on the
victims to see if they are carriers of communicable diseases, so we
rely on certain safety precautions to prevent coming into contact
with the many diseases prevalent in our work. But what do we do
with the contaminated waste from the crime scenes?
Healthwise we are creating a possible
catastrophe by leaving behind our waste products at the crime scene
or improperly disposing of the material elsewhere.
Let's use the following scenario as an
example: You just finished processing a homicide scene in a
residential area. All the waste was carefully placed inside of one
container at the crime scene. You wore protective gear and you were
very cautious not to contaminate yourself or others in the
residence. The last thing you do at the crime scene is throw away
the contaminated articles in the trash can or dumpster in the alley
behind the residence. The next day a small child is rooting through
the trash containers to find aluminum cans. He comes across YOUR
contaminated trash and he opens the bag cutting himself on the
"disposable" razor blade you used in the crime scene. He also finds
in the same bag several aluminum pop cans. He takes the whole bag
home and separates the "junk" from the aluminum cans. In this bag
are also papers and documents which identify the victim and your
department. The boy tells his mother he has cut himself on the
contents and requires nothing more then a band-aid. However, the
next day the mother opens the newspaper to see headlines telling
the public of a homicide involving two AIDS victims at the
residence where her son found his "treasure". Where does that leave
you and your department? In a liability nightmare. Can you imagine
the headlines of the next edition of that newspaper?
"POLICE RESPONSIBLE FOR SMALL CHILD
CONTRACTING AIDS"This is only a small sample of the
bio-hazardous waste that we tend to leave at the crime scenes. What
about the fingerprint powders or the chemicals that we use in these
scene? Who is responsible for the clean up after we leave the
scene?
There must be departmental procedures for the
proper disposal of bio-hazardous waste from crime scenes. The waste
needs to be placed in specially marked containers and properly
discarded. One avenue for the departments to consider is contacting
their crime laboratory personnel to discover how they dispose of
hazardous waste. Another source for disposal is the local
hospital.
Whatever the means, you must properly dispose
of the bio-hazardous waste from crime scenes or you and your
department run the risk of health hazards and the possibility of
being held liable for others becoming injured from this
waste.
Don't wait for your department to become
today's headlines. Take the appropriate action now to protect
yourself and your department from the health and liability problems
associated with bio-hazardous waste from the crime
scene.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at hbb@feinc.net
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