Death Cleanup Explained
Florida's medical examiners must investigate certain death scenes. Only when they complete their investigation may cleaning begin. Crime scene cleaners clean and decontaminate materials and areas soiled by homicides, suicides, and unattended deaths. Biohazards created by homicides, suicides, and decomposition following unattended deaths must be removed carefully. Trained cleaners should be used to clean certain death scenes.
Narrative on Trauma and Emotinal Influences -
In general, violent deaths should be cleaned by professional cleaners with bloodborne pathogen training as well as documented experience. The sight of certain death scenes may cause psychological trauma for some people. It is enough to witness a violent death, cleaning a death scene created by violence may cause as much emotional discomfort. When decomposition follows a death, for certain a professional cleaner should clean the death scene.
If a professional cleaner cannot be afforded, there is a do it your self website available that requires a small fee for consultation and web site explanation service. If the small consultation service fee is not available, call Eddie Evans at 888-431-7233 for help. If the telephone is busy, call back. If the telephone is not answered, it is because Eddie is between mountains, near a loud machine, or too contaminated by blood while cleaning to answer the telephone. Do call back.
An unattended death followed by decomposition demands professional attention because of its horrific nature, its unforeseen hazards, and its emotional issues. Whether a crime scene cleanup, a suicide cleanup, or death by natural causes, a decomposed body will leave an extrodinary amount of fluid, tissue, and damage.
The material left behind has its own odors and appearances. It is difficult to explain the difficulty cleaning a horrendous death scene soiled by blood.
An unattended death followed by decomposition is usually quite horrifying when first seen by the unsuspecting. The odors associated with a death scene strike one as nauseating. On a crime scene, odors add to the horrific appearance as the two become associated with one another.
For a while, many people recall a death scene whenever a loose association is made to it. A male urinating while standing may associate the urine odor with the death scene. The acrid, acidic odors of urine resemble death scene odors because urine is contained in the death scene fluids. Entering a butcher shop will do the same, both visually and by olfaction.
Parosmia is the result, a distorted peception arising from real, airborne molecules triggering unpleasant memories.
As a psycho-somatic cue for the death scene's trauma inducing responses, the subject may easily recall the traumatic scene with a tightening of muscles and restricted vascular flow. This is in essence the fight-or-flight response of any animal when confronted by a threat, real or imagined.
It becomes obvious that children and others exposed to a death scene created by violence or decomposition may suffer emotionally later, which may be framed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD ). Any decomposition death scene has the potential to do the same. Emotional cues are instilled by traumatic scenes, whatever their cause.
Besides homicides, suicides, and death by natural causes, any decomposition of the human body requires special consideration, special handling. TOP
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A death cleanup follows an event that soils areas with organisms, or material from organisms. As a biohazard, this material is a threat to human health. For our purposes, suicide, homicide, unattended death, and other soiled environments are cleaned by removing soiling material, then actually cleaning, disinfecting, and sealing. The goal is to destroy and remove microorganisms, virues, and toxins contaminating the environment with human fluids.
Death Odors from Decomposing Suicide
Will all Neptune's great ocean wash Clean this blood from my hand? Macbeth A short comment about the "death odor" precedes the crime scene cleanup comments found here. You might be interested to know that many people call the death odor "miasma." This term goes back to the 17th century when the death odor was associated with disease. Many educated people taught that miasma was itself carried plagues. We know today that miasma is just as safe as any other odor. It simply offends our sense of taste. We might ask, "Were we born with a distaste for this odor?". "Do Instincts account for our repulsed behavior to this odor?" we might also ask. Both answers to the above questions are no and no! Just like any other odor, we must learn to dislike miasma's various fragrances. Everyday around the world tens of thousands of people work with miasma and remain healthy. In short, we learn to "hate" the odor of death moreso because of what it means to us than what it does to us. 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. 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 Blood's contents add to its odor causing properties once in its external environment, open air. Proteins, carbohydrates, oxygen, carbon dioxide, urine, feces, enzymes, oils, and more add to its mal-odor properties. The detection of blood's odor depends upon the perceivers' previous experience with this odor as well as their strength of odor detection. Among any group of people, one will have a greater ability to detect blood's presence than the others, and so on. It is a relative matter. Violent deaths usually involve a great loss of blood and tissue, OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Materials). The loss of blood and tissue, the environmental conditions, and other circumstances will aid in the production of offensive death scene odors, miasma. Sometimes miasma lingers because of poor ventilation, Sometimes miasma will linger because it has permeated porous materials: fabrics, paper, wood, and more.
We do our best to remove the odors associated with crime scenes and other death scenes. However, removing the source material will not always return the scene to its pre-incident condition for some time. Time and heavy ventilation, and removal of miasma permeated materials will help return the scene to a more "normal" condition.
We can apply chemicals to help increase miasma's departure from the scene, but even chemicals have their limits. Ask about our odor control policies and methods if this is a concern. top
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Blood cleanup following death or trauma
Never remove biohazardous material without wearing gloves. "For cleaning blood or bloody fluids from floors, bed, etc., you can use household rubber gloves." Wear protection over eyes, nose, and mouth. Have a safe means of exit and a place to decontaminate yourself and clothing.
Dried blood that flakes may easily become aerosolized if mishandled. Contact with airborne blood places the cleaner at risk of infectious disease.
Before removing, moisten flaking (scabbing) blood. Cause it not to become airborne. Cover flaked blood with paper towels and lightly moIsten with a disinfectant (bleach) from afar. Use a spray bottle while making wide, misting applications to the paper towels' surface. Before removing blood, ensure that it is moist enough not to flake, but not dripping.
Dry paper towels may be used to contain wet blood. Allow towels to dwell until dry. Flush in small quantities, or gently place inside two thick plastic bags. Seal tightly with duct tape. Directly dispose of in a landfill.
Dripping wet blood is considered biohazardous and universally considered infectious until proven otherwise. Contain blood from afar; disinfect it. Pour blood down the sanitary sewer if you are not going to seal it for transfer.
Thoroughly wash hands.
See Blood Cleanup 1, blood cleanup 2, and blood cleanup 3.
General. Universal precautions shall be observed to prevent contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials. Under circumstances in which differentiation between body fluid types is difficult or impossible, all body fluids shall be considered potentially infectious materials.
Useful disinfectants may be found here:
Blood Spills: see index at http://www.bccdc.org/downloads/pdf/epid/reports/CDManual_
Vinegar: http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/vinegar-as-a-disinfectant.html