As a term, crime scene cleanup means more than blood cleanup. It means returning an entire death or trauma scene to its pre-incident condition, biologically. Crime scene cleanup means removal of blood, blood soiled objects, and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM).

Crime scene cleanup serves as an umbrella term for homicide, suicide, and unattended death cleanup. Each type of death cleanup has similarities and differences. Each requires thorough cleaning and complete decontamination, sanitizing.
        

Because of blood's splatter and migration, it may require deep cleaning to remove it. This means that pieces of floor covering may need removal. In some cases, pieces of floor may need removal. This occurs because of blood and OPIMs tendency to saturate building materials if it does not dry out first. Particularly with body fats turned to semi-liquid, saturation of wood floor or wall s may require demolition and special handling. For these reasons it's impotent for a crime scene cleanup company to begin work soon after police and other complete their investigations.

Sometimes it's not possible to begin cleaning in time to prevent some material damage. In these cases fluids and other materials, like tissues, may have dried out. In these cases removal may require special cleaning techniques, including suspension of corrosive cleaning and disinfections mixtures. This, as any crime scene cleanup work, we also call "biohazard cleanup" because like wet, moist, or dry flaky blood, tissue becomes a biohazard. Under such conditions, crime scene cleanup practitioners wear protective clothing.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration mandate that all employers ensure their employees have protection from bloodborne pathogens. Since all human blood carries pathogens, germs, in theory, all blood remains a threat when wet, moist, or dry and flaky. We must always consider such blood as universally dangerous to anyone working with it. As a matter of course, all employees must wear protection from exposure to bloodborne pathogens.

Protection from bloodborne pathogens may require gloves and mask; it may require a full body suit, "tyvek" for some. Those readers with a military background will recognize this type of protection. It has similarities to the Mission Oriented Protective Suit. Although, for size and durability it works in a commercial environment, not elsewhere. In any case, employee must feel comfortable to work. They must have protection from injuries and inoculation by blood and blood products.

       Homicide

Homicide Cleanup entails the same steps used in other types of blood cleanup tasks. Except, the debris field may cover a larger area. In cases of murder-suicide and mass murder, there's plenty more material to recover and a wider area to decontaminate. In such cases, enclosed cavities, such as drawers and closets, must undergo a thorough inspection. It happens during law enforcement's investigation that cavities open during the crime may become closed during investigations. As a result it's better to ensure no biological debris enters these areas. This task alone become labor intensive and time consuming.

Other areas of special note include sharps. Sharps arise as broken glass, forks, knives, and hypodermic needles. During drawer searches for bio-matter, needle-stick becomes a big concern. Where illegal drugs were used, needle-stick becomes a serious threat. Over 200 medical personnel receive deadly injuries from sharps and related objects each year in the United States; this gives testimony to the life-threatening germs in a biohazardous environment.

Among those germs of greatest threat, we find the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV); its biological transition phase, Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus (AIDS) may arise within month or up to 10 years later. For this reason HIV and AIDS receive the utmost respect by professional cleaners. Readers may surmise that needle-stick for a young cleaner means a life-threatening change of life.

There are no cures for HIV or AIDS. There are treatments. Life saving drug cocktails taken on a daily basis help to keep these deadly viruses at bay. Victims cannot remove these threats entirely, though.

This same problem arises with hepatitis C. However, this virus has no life-saving cures outside of replacing a damaged kidney. Short of this anatomical replacement, hepatitis C victims face illness and death. Making hepatitis C a greater threat to crime scene cleaners, this virus does not die shortly after exposure to our environment. Reporters have noted that it has survived for 16 days in the wild, meaning open air. This places a particular threat to anyone entering or living within a blood soiled environment. For this reason and others, thorough cleaning and decontamination must have the highest priority.

Tools for wide-area decontamination help clear large areas of viruses and bacteria. Ozone, for one, helps to burn these pathogens in-place. A bleach and water solution helps to destroy their outer membranes. Commercial and professional chemical will often do enough to remove these germs. Cleaners must remain aware of blood cleanup hazards. Keeping distance, ensuring thorough hand washing and sanitizing, and proper handling of soiled materials helps greatly.

Homicide

Suicide

Like most homicide cleanup work, suicide cleanup work entails a broad and deep scope for professional cleaners. Time, patience, and a willingness to work in horrid conditions remains a requirement. This does not mean that families should not try this task. It simply means that it's not an easy task.

Keep in mind that our species has cleaned up after suicides for thousands of years.In fact, in some places and at some times, suicide acts were considered and honorable and considerate social custom. Warriors, leaders, even great thinkers in Greece and Rome committed suicide for personal, social, and political reasons. We all recall Socrates purposely drinking the hemlock poison as a suicidal act.

Socrates was not crazy; not by any stretch of the imagination can we call Socrates "crazy" for his act. He committed suicide so the state would not have to execute him. Socrates, condemned to death for teaching the young critical thinking, chose self-murder to state execution. In doing so he absolved the state from doing something it should have avoided. That's the kind of guy we find committing suicide thousands of years ago.

We use pliers, wire cutters, forceps, and anything else that helps get bloody material out of death scene mattresses. Sometimes when we cut mattress springs one or more springs close quickly, tightly, and poke a hand. This poke reminds the cleaner why they wear thick leather gloves.

I have suffered these pokes a few times. Each and every time I got poked by a bloody mattress spring I wore a thick leather glove. Each time the glove saved me. Each time I got poked because I worked in haste. “Working around someone else’s blood in haste makes no sense,” I tell myself. Then I remind myself to slow down. After all, “What’s the hurry because I have all day.”

Blood cleanup calls for focus, patience and attention to detail. Lose any of these three parts of a good working attitude and injury follows.

I lost my focus and suffered greater risk to myself because of haste Rather than follow my own rules for reducing blood from enclosed areas containing sharp objects, I threw caution to the wind. Mind you, not only do bed springs become sharp spears when cut, they become spring-loaded spears. Sometimes these spears have wet, moist, or flaky blood on them. For anyone cleaning blood, the definition of biohazard includes these key phrases: wet blood, moist blood, and flaky dried blood. Contact with a death scene mattress requires attention to detail. No one should throw a death scene mattress around like a bag of dried leaves. Handle it with care if you must handle it at all.

In most circumstances, cleaning after a violent suicide leaves friends and family members more deeply shocked then by the suicide alone. No doubt exists among those experiencing suicide cleanup that the experience caused deep, emotional conflicts. Sadness, depression, rage, pity, and exhaustion follow the experience. The exhaustion may continue for several days in some cases because it joins with our grief's exhausting claim on our bodies.

At times some families regret cleaning after a family member's suicide. They remember the scene well. I've been told this more than once. We must keep in mind that crime scene cleanup became a "profession" only recently. Before crime scene cleanup arrived as a resource for suicide cleanup, families typically cleaned for themselves. Sometime families found a friend, relative, or neighbor to do the cleaning. Sometime morticians or body movers offered this service. Then we had no official name for crime scene cleanup. Now we have biohazard cleanup, suicide cleanup, blood clenaup, unattended death cleanup, and even trauma cleanup. A few companies advertise mass murdere cleanup.

A suicide cleanup may become a close memory for family members. This one reason remains a single explanation for why a professional company should hand this type of cleaning. Years later the suicide scene as found dims, but the cleanup's special experience creates a deep seated anxiety for those involved. Then there are those family members rarely bothered by doing a suicide cleanup. It's a matter of temperment. Family members often recall cleaning after a suicide in terms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.

As a result of cleaning after suicide's traumatic consequences, our cleaning professionals found a valuable service to offer those recovering from a friend or relative's suicide. No longer must we clean after a suicide if we have the means available to pay.

A suicide cleanup may involve small amounts of fluid removal from a hard surface. Or, a suicide cleanup may require total decontamination of a room or more. Suicide tends to leave an extraordinary amount of human bio-waste when the deceased remains down for over two days.

A biohazard cleaner also known as a "crime scene cleaner" applies standard cleanup techniques.

Usually an expensive cleaning process, suicide cleanup often comes under home owner's insurance. Sometimes it's better to seek your insurance provider's advice before moving forward with a suicide cleanup.

Some professional cleaners accept cash, check, credit card, PayPal, and other payment terms.

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