Death's Odors

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 - Is the death odor dangerous? - Crime Scene Odors - Sudden Death versus Decomposition - Reducing Death's Odors  - Shotgun - Adaption

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. Nostrils open widely for fresh baked bread's fragrances. Nostrils close quickly when exposed to solutions of bleah and ammonia.

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:

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.

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

Is the Death Odor Dangerous?

No, not to morticians, pathologists, butchers, morgue employees, police officers, homicide detectives, and others. The death odor consists of various gasses and has no known hazards. Sulfur and methane constitute major sources of death's odors. Contrary to some ignorant or misinformed biohazard cleanup companies, the death odor does not carry bacteria in most cases.

Bacteria become airborne when some person or natural cause lifts them into the air. Bacteria do not follow gas into the air as part of death's decomposition process. If they did, and if they were dangerous, the author would not be here to write these words.

Everyday around the world many people work around the death odor and remain healthy. Consider the thousands of coroner technicians, thousands of pathologists, thousands of morticians working day and night around death's odors. Now, do you see a problem with claims that the death odor causes illness or death?

Crime Scene Odors

The odors associated with a crime scene consist of both organic and inorganic substances. The inorganic are the materials used in the crime, such as the odor of gun powder. For our purposes here, our concern is the organic substances that lead to strong, repulsive contamination of a structure's internal environment.

Blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) begin decomposing once released from the body. Blood's thick sweet odor soon begins to permeate closed rooms. As the rate of decomposition depends upon the external environment's temperature, relative humidity, and other conditions. Along with decomposition follows odor. Both blood and OPIM create a major source for odors released as the body decomposes.

Sudden Death versus Unattended Death

For the purposes of understanding death's odors, the author juxtaposed sudden death with unattended death. Here's why.

Sudden deaths like those occurring in violent crime scenes sometimes leave copious amounts of blood. When enclosed in a room with little or no ventilation, blood's heavy, sweet odor begins to permeate the room. Typically, at least in commercial settings, the victim's blood remains down for a short while. Once blood removal occurs the odor quickly leaves as ventilation improves.

Unattended deaths sometimes occur and decomposition follows. The victim remains down for a long while, some times for weeks. After 72 hours flies and maggots begin to appear. Internal and external bacteria associated with the deceased off gas. Bacteria related to the decomposition process also off gas.

Releasing methane and sulfur odors into the surrounding air soon begins to permeate cellular material, manufactured or organic. Death's odors easily permeate cotton, paper, clothing, composite wood, and even dry wall, wood floors, and contaminated concrete floors.

Reducing Death's Odors

Time and ventilation cure death's odors, but not everyone has time to wait for these odors to reduce to imperceptible levels.

Many fabrics washed in warm, soapy water release the odor. Walls sealed with Zinnsser or Kilz sealers should embed death's odors.

Removing walls because of death's odors makes little sense in most cases. But, penetrating objects will at times carry small amounts of biological debris into insulation behind walls.

Shotgun

Shotgun blasts at close range to a wall have the capacity to biological debris behind a wall. Replacing an entire panel becomes cheaper than cutting out the offending area and replacing it, at times. In this case odors will arise from behind the wall if source material remains. Such conditions remain rare, but do occur.

Removing wood floors because of death's odors makes little sense.

The only time to remove wood flooring following a death arises from decomposition and thoroughly blood saturated wood. Wood floors maintained in good condition often repel blood well enough so that the blood dries before damaginge the floor.

Adaption

First the author explains adaption for hearing to help make adaption to odors more clear.

We know from experience.