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The author recounts readings and experiences with crime scene cleanup's death odors.

Women and Death's Odors -    Risky Building Conditions - Removing Death's Odors   -  Furnishings - Removing Death Odors from Bedding

Our brains control our minds and noses for sniffing control. We know automatically how much to sniff or not to sniff when it comes to identifying odors.  Moment by moment, just like the second-hand on a watch, our brains tell our noses how much to inhale or exhale foul or fair fragrances.

Death scene odors become part of an overall psychological and physiological response to horrific death scenes. For those new to such scenes the findings may result in psychological issues, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

A memory of the death scenes odors may follow those experiencing traumatic feelings. These odors become “analogs” to the original fragrances and follow the subject.

Examples of analogs include odors permeating butcher shops and supermarkets upon opening in the morning. A shopper standing at the entrance door as the door first opens for the day detects odors from blood and decaying animal flesh housed in display cases.

An instant analogous memory of death’s odors may come to mind and linger for a moment. Even visual images of the death scene may flash before the mind’s eye for an instant. Such displays of olfactory and mental “flashbacks” follow death odor analogs.

Urine and feces share a part in the death odor’s creation. For another example, males standing in urinal stalls may momentarily remember death odor’s as their urine’s uric acid fragrances rise and vaporize in the nose.

Women and Death's Odors

Women detect the death odor more easily then men because women’s noses have a greater sensitivity to odors. (What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life -- Kindle Edition). Younger women become the test agents for death's odors following a crime scene cleanup because of their sensitivity. While men may believe that death's odors no longer remain, a young woman may prove them wrong.

"More than once," the author reported, women remain outdoors walking up and down the sidewalk in front of a crime scene cleanup home. When they finally agree to enter and find no odor, then the odor reduction, "removal," becomes "completed."

Still, children may find otherwise and efforts to remove the odor must continue. Sensory cues for death odor's become confused with general household odors in some cases. Urine contamination around toilets and pet urine may add to the confusion.

Removing Death's Odors

Crime scene cleanup requires the following to reduce and remove death's odors:

• Cursory disinfections
• Source material removal
• Thorough cleaning
• Thorough disinfections
• Thorough sealing where needed
• Heavy ventilation
• Source material destruction and sealing where appropriate.

The author reminds us that old houses and most homes have odors of their own. We must not confuse these existing odors with death’s odors as work moves forward.   Different families use different recipes, each adding to the overall olfactory load for each home. Heavy cooking oils, garlic, and sauces add to each home’s overall fragrances.

The author reports one home owner in Orange County, California confused composting lawn clippings with biohazards. He called Orange County Biohazard Cleanup and learned that lawn clippings have their own microbial micro-organisms, which differ from those of human decomposition biohazards.

The author asserts most crime scene cleanup work does not require removing floors and walls. The following lines from a popular online magazine article carry little truth value:  With an old house, you will likely need to start tearing out walls and cabinets. As a consequence these radically inaccurate lines, the author reminds us to ignore questionable information. (http://www.ehow.com/how_2110244_remove-odor-death-decay.html). As a result, we must read and think with our critical thinking tools.

Risky Building Conditions

Old houses or a home with poorly maintained floors, poorly maintained walls, and poorly maintained grout offer egress to decomposing fluids. Under these conditions removing floors and walls becomes a real issue.  Any disinfections of these areas must not soak or otherwise saturate to the point of dripping, except when demolition must follow to reveal hidden areas. Where floors and walls have adequate maintenance, their removal becomes necessary in special, but less frequently than otherwise.

Never use odor masking chemicals, candles, or incense sticks to overcome odors, no matter what the need. A neutral olfactory condition becomes the crime scene cleanup technician’s goal, but previous home odors may return, which the cleaner accepts as satisfactory

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Round the clock ventilation must begin as soon as possible to rid residences and other buildings of deaths odors. Opened windows, opened doors, and large blowing fans help speed odor reduction and removal. If security issues occur, then those openings left open without security issues must remain open.

Furnishings

Crime scene cleanup technicians must dissect and demolish blood soiled fabric and cushioned couches, love seats, and recliners. Blood and OPIM  penetration or  fluid puddles signify the need for demolition; light blood smears and small blood splashes removed by an experienced upholstery cleaner with bloodborne pathogen training saves much money. Also,  if soiled cushions have replacements in  furniture stores, replacements for these parts will do.

Lightly disinfecting soiled furnishings prior to work may help overcome odors and hazards, but furnishings should not drip disinfectant. 

Sealing soiled furnishings may also help some crime scene cleanup technicians overcome repulsive odors and sights. Sealing materials as exposed and removed takes more time and costs more money, but at the end of the day these materials become much easier to handle as well as safely disposed of in the biohazard chain or local landfill as needed. 

  
Removing Death Odors from Bedding

Washing blood soaked bedding at the highest available temperature in soapy water with bleach usually returns these materials to a usable state. Several cycles in a washing machine may help in this regard.  Many hospitals use this approach to return linen to full service.

The crime scene cleanup technician cannot recover blood soiled pillows. Like furnishings, pillows require dissecting blood from their contents.

  
Removing Death Odors from Mattresses
Like unsoiled furnishings, unsoiled mattresses permeated by death’s odors will release the death odor with time and ventilation. Whenever possible place odor damaged mattresses outdoors in an area protected from dust and insects.

Landfills usually accept such mattresses, too.

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