dumpster diver's disease

Has anyone ever contracted illness or permanent diease while dumpster diving?

Ive raided a dumpster from outfront a house im guessing someone died in. lots of really old books, work tools and everything else. no, I didnt ask permission (or get to ask questions), it was in a curbfront dumpster in the busy city of sf with lots of metal sticking out, if i didnt grab it, someone else would. well i couldnt help to wonder what he died of. old age.. couldnt fight of sickness... could all that stuff be contaminated with his sickness?

What about that load i got from my neighbors house. without thinking anything other than "aluminum ~drool~" I grabbed his mothers toilet booster seat and threw it in my truck. wow, talk about a gross, bacteria carrying material, if that thought came into my head I woulda just left it.

but then im thinking about things people toss out just cuase their friend puked all over it or cuase it had spent years nestled in rat feces. Who knows where what has been, especially when we decide to keep or sell it!

I'm just thinking that in the long run are these small gains not worth the risk of illness?
What are some illness we should be especially weary of? I always hear of nasty tweaker diseases like hpv, hepatitus and tuberculosis. are we putting ourselves at risk of catching these diseases?

just a thought.

I also need to put a bottle of purelle in my truck

i just moved to oakland and brought a neighbors curbed tv into my new room

There is a reason our bodies have immune systems. Just wear gloves and wash your hands/take a shower after your done trash picking and you should be fine. Oh, look out for needles too.

my cousins saw really nice furniture tossed on the curb. it was nice luxury stuff. needlless to say they rushed and stuck it in their house.
at night the terror began. hello bed bugs.

Beware of Greek gifts !

if you think about diseases and gross stuff, then you wont be dumpster diving! I pick up metals, picked thru anything that can bring me a buck or two BUT..I am always very alert as to where i am sticking my hands, face and rest of body in...I use latex gloves and over the latex gloves I also use some heavy duty gloves sensitive enough to feel my way. I ususally do this at night with a flashlight. Im starting out and was sharing the one car we have at the house..so, it has been rather overwhelming and tiresome. back to diseases...use gloves, clean the gloves at least twice per week. Alcohol and hand sanitizer are a MUST. I even use hand sanitizer over the gloves specially after touching dog poop (the other night, I ran into dog poop while dumpster diving)- it was a ****tie night to say the least!...

Steering wheel and shifter ..always rub off some alcohol and hand sanitizer..be on the defense and you will be fine.

I never dumpster dive. I'm an effective scrapper where I work smart and not too hard. Touch bases with some old heads and you will get what I mean.

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Has anyone ever contracted illness or permanent diease while dumpster diving?

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Hoss wasn't D.D. but it did come from scrapping.
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...-you-sick.html

Almost got poked by a needle. After that I got some puncture-proof gloves and watched what I was doing better.

i cant pass up a dumpster.my wife hates it and will even hide her face while im digging.but when i find someones entire yard sell full of nicley bagged clean expensive womens bluejeans for her and her daughter she is like a kid at christmass going thru the bags.the best way i can explain it is that id feel like i was stealing off my self if i drove by a dumpster and didnt look. there could have been 200 dollars worth of metal in there and id never have known if i had not looked. anyhow back to topic at hand i have a hook on a garden hoe handle i use to inspect.i only get all in when it is required.needles are common here so i keep my eyes open.i have learned if i recycle anything for other than scrap it is washed at the laundry mat and disenfected and bug sprayed befor entering my home.ive never had bed bugs but i drag roaches in 2 times befor i learned my lesson.and believe me a free cool old end table will definatley become costly when you have to spend 50 dollars on bug bombs. ive never worried about diseases though i geuse rubber gloves and a dust mask would be as good idea.

I do it less now. Long story short meds make my immune system really low. Even then though I am careful and have never caught anything. Main thing is to wear gloves. I wear cheap latex under work gloves. The latex (nitril if allergic) also helps me to feel my grip better.

I dumpster dive but I really only look for the higher value items.and I don't really dig.my best dumpster find tho was 2 catalytic's .one was from a bmw:)

It's risky just crossing the street and breathing.

I wear gloves, the purel is in the glove box.

I pick in the evening and the morning when it's still light and I can see what I'm picking. I'm never in a hurry to bring anything inside until I've gone over it first. Furniture gets sniff tested before it's even thrown in the truck and then cleaned carefully or steam cleaned and gone over outside before it comes in the house, electronics get opened checked and blown out with a compressor.

Clothes are shook out and checked and go directly to the HOT washer and a HOT dryer...or they are sealed in a black bag to sit in the summer sun and bake for a day before they go in the washer if I'm pressed on time.

I've been picking for years and so far, so good...the worst that's happened is that I've drug something back out to the curb. I've picked a lot of things that I would have never even had if I had to buy them. I thank the trash gods all the time.

Getting cut and or needles, would be the first dangers and then any bugs you may bring home.

I have a pretty much constant ****z from coming in contact with germs etc.

I expect its mostly from old fridges etc. Once the fridge stops, people just close the door & theres a time period before they actually dump it.
In that time period.............................anything can happen.

Cockroaches (almost unknown here in NZ, probably seen them 6 times in my life).
Mold (green, from bread etc)
Flys & maggots (in various stages of life cycles)
Rotten meat (sealed & unsealed)

A while ago I got some 'probacteria' yoghurt. 6 & 1/2 billion good bacteria per serve. NZ$4 for 5 servings.
That helps heaps, untill I pick up some bad bacteria again, though a few solid weeks of using it would fix everything I think.
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I still cringe at remembering the time I found a partly filled 20 litre container of Ali mag wheel cleaner. Remembering that I had heard that some mag wheel cleaner is actually GHB, I took a second look, before removing the cap.

Boy I'm glad I did. It was Hydrofluric acid 5%.......

Hydrofluoric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote wiki{ Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive liquid and is a contact poison. It should be handled with extreme care, beyond that accorded to other mineral acids. Owing to its low dissociation constant, HF as a neutral lipid-soluble molecule penetrates tissue more rapidly than typical mineral acids. Because of the ability of hydrofluoric acid to penetrate tissue, poisoning can occur readily through exposure of skin or eyes, or when inhaled or swallowed. Symptoms of exposure to hydrofluoric acid may not be immediately evident. HF interferes with nerve function, meaning that burns may not initially be painful. Accidental exposures can go unnoticed, delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury.}

Not my hands, just a pic off wiki
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rned_hands.jpg

fukk dude that had to hurt!

not just dumpsters but anything you open can make you feel not so good. think about opening old dusty tv's and electronics, working with copper, AC's, fridges. I've noticed since I started scrapping my hands tend to be itchy sometimes after processing a load even with gloves on, my lungs sometimes feel heavy and who knows what can happen when you cut yourself on ANYTHING you tear apart. Getting poked with metals, wires, any of those things can harbor germs.

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Originally Posted by eesakiwi

I have a pretty much constant ****z from coming in contact with germs etc.

I expect its mostly from old fridges etc. Once the fridge stops, people just close the door & theres a time period before they actually dump it.
In that time period.............................anything can happen.

Cockroaches (almost unknown here in NZ, probably seen them 6 times in my life).
Mold (green, from bread etc)
Flys & maggots (in various stages of life cycles)
Rotten meat (sealed & unsealed)

A while ago I got some 'probacteria' yoghurt. 6 & 1/2 billion good bacteria per serve. NZ$4 for 5 servings.
That helps heaps, untill I pick up some bad bacteria again, though a few solid weeks of using it would fix everything I think.
--------

I still cringe at remembering the time I found a partly filled 20 litre container of Ali mag wheel cleaner. Remembering that I had heard that some mag wheel cleaner is actually GHB, I took a second look, before removing the cap.

Boy I'm glad I did. It was Hydrofluric acid 5%.......

Hydrofluoric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote wiki{ Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive liquid and is a contact poison. It should be handled with extreme care, beyond that accorded to other mineral acids. Owing to its low dissociation constant, HF as a neutral lipid-soluble molecule penetrates tissue more rapidly than typical mineral acids. Because of the ability of hydrofluoric acid to penetrate tissue, poisoning can occur readily through exposure of skin or eyes, or when inhaled or swallowed. Symptoms of exposure to hydrofluoric acid may not be immediately evident. HF interferes with nerve function, meaning that burns may not initially be painful. Accidental exposures can go unnoticed, delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury.}

Not my hands, just a pic off wiki
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rned_hands.jpg

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Let me repeat, never, ever dumpster dive. Look back at the post "Ten Commandments of Scrapping," no scrap is worth going to jail for and definitely not worth risking your health. Wait until you have no family nor love ones, then dumpster dive your heart away. It's way beyond pride. Get your priorities in line and don't dive.

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Originally Posted by TheRecycler

Let me repeat, never, ever dumpster dive. Look back at the post "Ten Commandments of Scrapping," no scrap is worth going to jail for and definitely not worth risking your health. Wait until you have no family nor love ones, then dumpster dive your heart away. It's way beyond pride. Get your priorities in line and don't dive.

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Actually, where I get my scrap from is probably worse than the fridges & stuff in the first place.
Its a 'Free dumping' muddy pit that people dump their whiteware & TV's appliances into, the owner cleans it out with a truck & grapple & sells it at a set rate to the scrapper. I come along & pick out all the Ali, Copper, Brass & escrap, tidy it up & leave all the iron.

Quote{Wait until you have no family nor love ones, then dumpster dive your heart away.} Does a Cat count? I think the cats got more influence on me than anything else.

Actually I'm thinking hard about getting a job working/welding for someone else, its a lotta hard work & I make my $ in smaller amounts. I can still scrap with a job though.

I've never been sick from scrapping, but I never dumpster dive either. I will tell you to be extremely. careful reaching under car seats when scrapping a car. Last week I came across a hypodermic needle under the seat, and in the floor board of another truck was a few 12 gauge shells and a huge 7mm rifle cartridge. It would be a bad day if I some how accidentally set those off.

Id be more worried about bugs and spiders. I am in NC. On a normal day running my normal route about 6 years ago, got bit by a tick or a spider
. Ended up sick as hell for 2 weeks before I went to the hospital. They couldn't pin point what it was but treated me as if I had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Oh man oh man carolinarecycle you're not kidding. Those flat screens I dumpster dived for last week were FULL of maggots.

I just reclaimed the one my brother took because of this very reason. :(

Haha what?! Maggots!? Makes you wonder what they were eating inside of them!

so ive read that bedbugs only really like to move around at night
well today i started hacking at a really old dingy sofa couch that im pretty sure had to be filled with them.
with a bunch of the cloth still attached i loaded it into my truck -then unloaded it elsewhere
but do you think that disruption dropped a bunch of bedbugs into my truck where they sit waiting for the next clothy item to crawl into? I do like to keep nice things and bring them into my home (if i know who they came from)
is it possible/easy for them to jump onto my clothing after i have disturbed their hiding spot?

Id think you should be fine if your caught up with all your shots/immunizations.

dumpster jump pretty regular .....make sure you have permission ,an angry maintenance guy ,construction guy or cop might be hazardous to your health more then the dumpster

i genrally don't jump inside them and try my best to pass on the knarly stuff ,....but have developed a stronger stomach over the years ,.....i keep a can of lysol in the truck for biohazard looking stuff ....death cleanout stuff yelds good scrap and resale stuff but warrents investigatin on death causes .....if i see like a ton of meds ,bad housekeeping or the residence looks scary ,then i'm weary and pass on stuff ......usually you can tell if it's a death cleanout ,and often the redflags will be in what you see in a quick look ,.....if i do the cleanouts ,i alway ask how they died too .......so far 3-4 years of it and no illnesses..........(knock on wood)

i'm like super watchfull of sharp things ,....that seems like the biggest issue i've had with it ,....peaple toss broken glass ,knives ,cut metal and wood with nails .......i don't stick my hands anywhere i can't see what there touching first ,....i keep first aid kit in the truck too ,........i use gloves sometimes ,but mostly have learned to be carefull ,watchfull and take my time ,.....and i still bleed everynow and then

as for bugs ,yup learned the hard way ,.....nothing goes inside the house anymore unless i know who it came from and know they don't have bugs ,.....if i have to take it and bugs might live in it ,....then it goes straight to the burn pit .......i don't touch beds ,couches ,clothes or anything that might be questionable ,....unless i'm getting payed to haul it away ,and even then i'm weary

Dumpster diving is a good way to get cut or poked with dirty and rusty materials. Furniture left out for trash pickup is a good way to get mold, flees, ticks, roaches, or bedbugs into your house. Quite a bit of disease is passed on my animal bites and insect bites along with deep cuts that were not cleaned. It is hard to smell chemicals that have dried out or are in powder form that you might get into contact with, never know when somebody is junking a meth lab makers furniture. Old timers like keeping crazy nasty cancer causing solvents around in their basement for some reason.

Not sure how long bacterial infections survive outside the body (TB or what have you) where you could get infected from coming in contact with material weeks after the person died (takes time to get sick, die, probate, next of kin tossing the junk).

Face it if pack rats didn't eventually die then you would have a hard time getting paid.

One of the grossest things I have to deal with is somebody elses computer keyboard , they all get washed before I use them (vintage collectable ones).