The 7 Dirtiest Jobs

Sept. 3, 2012— -- intro: Mike Rowe knows a thing or two about getting dirty. That's because Rowe, the creator and executive producer of Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series Dirty Jobs With Mike Rowe, has tried over 300 greasy, sooty, oily, charcoaly, dusty, grimy jobs, so you don't have to.

And we wondered: What are seven of the grossest jobs out there? Which jobs will go down in history as the absolute worst for dry cleaning? Which professions made him long for a shower?

Undoubtedly, they have to do with mining and farming. "Every single thing we do is a derivative of something we grow from the ground or mine from the ground," Rowe told ABC News.

Here they are.

quicklist: Charcoal Maker title: Charcoal Makermedia: 17131268 text: "Labor Day cookouts don't happen without a relatively small number of people walking into what amounts to a giant bunker where scrap wood is slowly charred for 72 hours," said Rowe. It's not burned, but rather charred, like a S'more, "just to the point where it becomes internally toasted. Then you hammer the wood, beat it to pieces, and there's smoke everywhere, and you look like Al Jolson."

quicklist: Renderer title: Renderermedia: 17131010 text: This rather unpleasant process essentially recycles dead animals into products like chicken feed and biodiesel, so the plants are loaded with carcasses and animal remains. "It's a blood bath—no one wants to see it or talk about it," said Rowe. "It took me years to convince a camera crew to go inside a rendering operation. The smell is indescribable; the sights are something out of Kafka. But the finished product is something really valuable. Basically, all leather products come from dead livestock and have to go through this process."

quicklist: Animal Bone Charrer title: Animal Bone Charrermedia: text: Bone char (or bone black) is a granular material that comes from charring animal bones. "Bone black is used today in all kinds of lubricants and is huge in the cosmetics industries," said Rowe. It's also used to remove fluoride from water and to filter aquarium water.

quicklist: Mackinac Bridge Painter title: Mackinac Bridge paintermedia: 17130953text: The Mackinac Bridge is called the "Mighty Mack" for a reason. Five times longer than the Golden Gate Bridge and over 600 feet tall, it spans Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. "It's an endless job," said Rowe. "The paint is a bright green and it needs to be employed constantly. When you finish, you're covered in green paint."

quicklist: Opal Miner title: Opal Minermedia: 17131155 text: Cooper Pedy, Australia, is the opal mining capital of the world. The job involves being lowered into a hole about 80 feet into the Earth. "It's insanely claustrophobic and insanely dangerous," said Rowe.

Not to mention insanely unclean. "You're in a hole covered in dirt," he said. "It's like being two inches tall at the bottom of a Coke bottle."

quicklist: Dirt Sterilizer title: Dirt sterilizermedia: 17131071 text: "The oil spills that get all the press happen offshore," said Rowe. "The ones that get no press are when a pipe ruptures underground, inland. The soil is still contaminated with raw crude but you can't see it. Teams need to come in to literally sterilize the dirt, sometimes for years." By the end of a shift, workers don't even look like people, he said. "It's pure brown dusty dirt."

quicklist: Lift Pump Replacement Techniciantitle: Lift Pump Replacement Technicianmedia: text: This is one of the last hands-on jobs in waste water management, and it is decidedly gross. "What makes the job horrible is that you've got to get the broken lift out and the new one in," said Rowe. "To do this, you have to wade–and sometimes swim–through human waste."