Decontaminate equipment or sites to remove hazardous or toxic substances.

Decontaminate equipment or sites to remove hazardous or toxic substances. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 6 occupations and seen in 7 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas. in Performing General Physical Activities .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 7 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 0 (0%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 1 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.004% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Extract chemicals from discarded appliances, such as air conditioners or refrigerators, using specialized machinery, such as refrigerant recovery equipment. · Recycling and Reclamation Workers · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Clean contaminated equipment or areas for reuse, using detergents or solvents, sandblasters, filter pumps, or steam cleaners. · Hazardous Materials Removal Workers · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Clean mold-contaminated sites by removing damaged porous materials or thoroughly cleaning all contaminated nonporous materials. · Hazardous Materials Removal Workers · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Clean and disinfect domestic basements and other areas flooded by sewer stoppages. · Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners · importance 3.7 · no direct exposure
• Disinfect, reconstruct, and redevelop contaminated wells and water pumping systems, and clean and disinfect new wells in preparation for use. · Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas · importance 3.7 · no direct exposure
• Clean laboratory facilities. · Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary · importance 3.4 · no direct exposure
• Remove rubbish or pollution from the sea. · Commercial Divers · importance 3.3 · no direct exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Recycling and Reclamation Workers
• Hazardous Materials Removal Workers
• Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
• Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas
• Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary
• Commercial Divers

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-decontaminate-equipment-or-sites-to-remove-hazardous-or-toxic-substances,
  title  = {Decontaminate equipment or sites to remove hazardous or toxic substances.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/decontaminate-equipment-or-sites-to-remove-hazardous-or-toxic-substances}
}