All in a day's work

There is a man, who is just this side of certifiable, on the Discovery channel who likes to try his hand at the dirtiest jobs he can imagine. Mike Rowe provides good entertainment and introduces his large audience to a wealth of jobs that they would ordinarily never know of. Some of the dirtier jobs he’s been on include road kill recovery, hot tar roofing, bone cleaning, shoeing horses, and extracting minerals from mud.

Hot tar roofing is dangerous as well as dirty. The tar is, obviously, hot, and can cause serious burn injuries. As soon as it comes into contact with skin, it cools, solidifies and sticks. This can result in third, second or first degree burns and leaves very bad scars. In some cases workers have to carry buckets of hot tar up and down ladders. This poses a potential danger to the workers below, as well as the worker with the bucket.

To ensure that workers are as safe as possible, they should all wear protective clothing, such as leather or heat resistant gloves; long pants without cuffs so that the tar won’t be trapped in the cuffs; long sleeved shirts; and safety glasses. Some workers may need hard hats and respirators. Companies should invest in mop carts that have wheels and push handles to transfer tar from the ground to the roof. This eliminates the need for hauling hot tar around in buckets.

The first rule in bone cleaning is, “Don’t boil or bleach bone”. Boiling bone will cause fat to soak into it and leave it greasy and yellow. Bleach, especially chlorine-based bleach damages bone, weakening it and making it chalky and porous. Bones treated with bleach will be reduced to bone meal as they age.

A simple bone cleaning method, known as Maceration, lets bacteria do all the work. First you must remove as much of the remaining tissue or hide from the bone as you can, then immerse it in a container of water. Place the container somewhere warm and out of nasal range. You will have to keep pouring the reeking, greasy water and replacing it with fresh water until the water runs clear. Clear water indicates that the bacteria have done their job and there’s only one more thing for you to do. Obtain some hydrogen peroxide, which is available at any chemist, and soak the bone until it’s as white as you want it to be. The peroxide will also sterilise the bone.

An alternative method is to use dermestid beetles. These meat-eating beetles are the bone cleaners of choice when dealing with very delicate bones, and are often used by professional preparators.

Farriers are specialists in horse shoeing. The farrier and blacksmith professions are closely related. They use similar skills, but blacksmiths can’t shoe horses unless they are registered as farriers. Ordinarily a farrier would trim a horse’s hoof to keep its original orientation to the ground, before shoeing it. If he/she works on a horse that has a heavy workload, works on a surface that’s abrasive on hooves, or needs additional traction, it may be necessary to design shoes to suit that horse’s special needs.

Other tasks that a farrier is required to do include treating injured and diseased hooves, working with vets and equine hospitals in corrective shoeing and surgical farriery, and creating and applying special shoes for racing or cosmetic purposes.

Discovery channel’s Mike Rowe tries dirty jobs out of curiosity and for entertainment purposes. It should never be forgotten, however, that for a large number of people, dirty jobs are their livelihood. For some, they are even dream jobs. When couples start thinking about having children, they often wonder what their hypothetical offspring could become. What would they make of their children, one wonders, if they announced a determination to become a road kill recovery specialist?

Recommended sites:

http://www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/Research/Files/TarBurnInjuryFacts.pdf

http://www.boneroom.com/faqs/bones.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrier