Real life: Keeping it clean - meet the grimebusters

For many people the thought of wiping up blood after a road accident or clearing up mouse droppings in a grimy kitchen is enough to make their stomach churn.

And picturing someone tackling a messy sewage spill or removing smelly bird mess from buildings would also cause a shudder.

Most of us would probably run a mile from any of these grim situations.

But it's the job of specialist hygiene technicians to put any emotions or fears aside to deal with the many varied, challenging and quite often disgusting tasks that are thrown at them each and every day.

These can be the more routine duties such as scrubbing public toilet blocks, deep-cleaning silos and sewers, purging streets of graffiti and chewing gum or clearing rubbish from a squatters house.

But they can also be called upon to help in more distressing circumstances where they need to act quickly, discreetly and sensitively.

This could see them having to remove the blood and debris after a car crash, sanitise a house following a grisly murder or harrowing suicide or clean a crime scene and aid a police investigation.

Their goal is to remove all signs of the trauma that has occurred and ensure the site is once again a hygienic and safe environment.

And while it may seem like a relatively thankless role, with a typical salary of up to £22,000, for Wayne Robinson, who has been working in the industry for 20 years, there is a real sense of achievement for a job well done.

The 36-year-old has risen through the ranks to become a service supervisor for Rentokil Specialist Hygiene based in Birmingham and oversees a team of 15 technicians.

The team is on call to cover a wide area stretching from Aberystwyth to Skegness and have to be ready to jump into action at a moment's notice.

"You can be on one side of the country and then need to be on the other," says Wayne.

During his time at the firm he has been involved in a vast range of jobs but there are some that now stand out in his memory for a variety of reasons.

He has had to cope with many upsetting scenes including the fallout of a terrifying attack where a man stabbed his partner in their home as well as being called in to help after a woman was knocked down in the road.

But one of the saddest jobs during his career so far has been dealing with the aftermath of a suicide.

"A gentleman took his own life with a gun. He was upstairs and his family were downstairs. We had empathy for the family but we were there to do a job.

"We found notes that he had written to his family. In my head I was thinking how would I feel if this was my house and my family? I felt sorry for his family," says Wayne.

As well as a strong stomach and nerves of steel, Wayne says anyone looking to get into the industry needs to have the ability to switch off their emotions so they can get on with the job at hand.

But if it all does become too difficult, there is a 24-hour advice line for him to call. "If there is too much to go home with then help is available," says Wayne, who lives in Birmingham.

Hygiene specialists also have to work closely with police at crime scenes. This can be after all evidence has been gathered or while detectives are still investigating a case. They have to protect themselves and also tread carefully to protect any potential hidden clues.

One of Wayne's more unusual call-outs was an animal cruelty case in Birmingham.

He explains: "A gentleman had been killing animals and freezing them in his house.

"We had to sift through the rubbish and call in police if we found anything that could be evidence."

Once the emergency services and investigation teams have finished their work at the scene of a road accident then the cleaners will be called in to disinfect the street and pavements before they can be re-opened to drivers and pedestrians.

This can often mean removing human blood and other bodily fluids and one of the methods used to minimise this risk is fogging, which disperses micro-droplets of disinfectant helping to ensure the whole area is covered.

Wayne has become used to dealing with blood and says it helps that when faced with the dirt and the grime of the role the team wears fully protective clothing including suits, masks and gloves.

Strong cleaning chemicals are used to ensure sites are left as hygienic as they possibly can be and everything is disposed of carefully according to strict guidelines.

The team can also be drafted in to restore commercial kitchens when restaurants fall foul of environmental health standards.

"If a restaurant gets a low rating then we may be recommended to go in to clean," says Wayne, who also worked on a long-term project for Birmingham City Council ensuring the smooth running of water tanks and pipes at its properties.

But sometimes the job does not involve any cleaning at all. One of the more quirky tasks Wayne was recruited for was searching for bottles of faulty nail polish.

His team had to check around 65,000 bottles after it was discovered that some of them contained varnish that wasn't setting properly.

"We had to check the code on every bottle to make sure they didn't go out to a customer," says Wayne.

He describes the team as a close 'family unit' so when things get tough they can support each other.

Having a laugh and joke as they go also helps them to deal with some of the horrors that the job can sometimes throw up.

But it's the variety it offers and being able to make a real difference to help the public that Wayne enjoys the most.

"Every day is different and there is great job satisfaction. You have to be open-minded and be willing to go the extra mile," he says.

By Heather Large