Biohazard Cleanup, Blood Cleanup, Death Cleanup, Suicide Cleanup, Decompositon Cleanup
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Biohazards may be infected blood or tissue from crime scenes, suicides, and unattended deaths. Such infectious environments must be isolated until all cleaning, disinfecting, and removal is carried out. Extreme hygienic exaggeration should be used by the novice as well as the professional. Always clean biohazardous environments as if cleaning for a toddler's use.
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. Blood stains are not biohazardous unless literally smeared upon open wounds or eyes. Be safe, seal it.
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. (return)
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
Household bleach is a wonderful, but very corrosive disinfectant. It is a "midrange disinfectant." Bleach has a wide bacterial killing spectrum. It is inexpensive and found on most market shelves. However, bleach is extremely dangerous in the presence of acids, including urine. Open bleach bottles lose their strength; it loses strength when applied to organic material, like blood and decomposing matter. Bleach must be used cautiously, wisely. (return)
:Disposable items that are so grossly contaminated with blood and tissue that they would produce dripping upon compression should be placed in closable, leak-proof containers or bags that are color coded, labeled, or tagged for easy identification as infectious waste. Items that are not dripping upon compression are considered noninfectious and should be placed in separate receptacles. These containers should be transported in closed, washable carts or vehicles.
Mechanical friction should be used while cleaning."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/
mi_m0FSL/is_n2_v67/ai_20651299/pg_2/?tag=content;col1
Rationale:
Effectiveness of the cleaning depends on the use of scrubbing action.(18)
Why do we have crime scene cleaners?
Crime scene cleaners emerged because it is now easier to catch a disease from cleaning crime scenes. It was inevitable for this business field to grow, especially when jobs are hard to find.
Also, Bloodborne pathogen's have always been with us and have always diversified in nature. Now, blood-borne pathogen's have become more dangerous and easier to contract. So the business field known as Crime Scene Cleanup has grown to serve the needs of blood cleanup for residential, commercial, and industrial environments. Also, Crime Scene Cleanup, as written about earlier, is a phrase that glamorizes trauma cleanup.
In the late 1970's and early 1980's, we learned about HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Disease, which becomes AIDS as it progresses. AIDS is an acronym and stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This disease spread for a number of years in the US before the US Government decided to recognize it. The government refused to get involved because it appeared that "AIDS" was a "homosexual" disease. So there was some bigotry involved with its recognition. In that time, it became obvious that something serious needed to be done.
People were dying in increasing numbers, and the manner of their deaths was quite unusual. They were dying because their bodies could no longer standup against minor and major illnesses. Women were contracting the disease from their husbands and boy friends at the rate of 1 to 15. That is, women were 15 times more likely to contract HIV from sexual intercourse with a male than vice versa.
So OSHA now set rules for employers to ensure that their employees were protected from needle-stick during work. Health employees were the most obvious group of US workers at risk, but these rules are applied to most employees in the private sector. Because of this, no one can clean a bloody environment or be involved with work involving possible exposure to blood or OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Matter) without blood-borne pathogen training. See your American Red Cross for a professional trainer.
HIV is not the only pathogen out there. In fact, Hepatitis C is every bit as bad as HIV. These and other diseases will be written about at another time.
What is probably important for those interested in becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner," to this writer's knowledge, is that there is no private "certification" needed to clean a bloody scene. So if a school owner or a Crime Scene Cleanup business tells the reader that they must be "certified," the reader needs to ask, "Certified by whom?". Some states have certain requirements for handling and disposing of blood and OPIM. These state regulations should be taken very seriously.
Bloodborne pathogen training is usually the first step in most states, if not the only step to becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner." For crime scene cleanup, certification in bloodborn pathogen training is found quite cheaply and quickly through the American Red Cross.
It is important, in this writer's mind, that as many people as possible become trained in this field of cleaning. The "writing is on the wall," so to speak. Diseases of unknown origin and magnitude will join us in the 21st Century because of Global Warming. Terrorism will probably be another source of creating catastrophic trauma events. So learn to cleanup blood. Whatever you call yourself is not important. It is the skills that matter. Cleaning death scenes can be very dangerous, not to mention horrific!
Perhaps it is time for the public schools to begin teaching these skills.
For certain, the public school systems needs to orient their lessons toward a more ecologically centered approach. Students need to learn about ecological relationships early in their academic career. The importance of seeing nature's relationships ought to be taught: Earth, air, water, biology, ecology.
In summary, blood carrying diseases has spread due to nature's diversity and government negligence. Crime scene cleanup became profitable because rules now exist to cleanup some bloody environments. Bloodborne pathogen training is required to clean bloody environments (American Red Cross). Many people need to be trained because of catastrophic events. Life-long learning is important, and some "schools" need to be avoided.
See the next blog writing: Starting your own Crime Scene Cleanup Business - The Reality
Eddie Evans
I have cleaned throughout California for about eight years. I have cleaned hundreds of death and trauma scenes. I know about odors from death.
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.
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Narrative on Trauma and Emotinal Influences - Odors
Emotional trauma may arise with exposure to a violent crime scene, suicide, or human decomposition.
In general, decomposition should be handled professionally because of its tendency to cause emotional trauma; not unlike a violent crime scene.
An unattended death with 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 awkward cleaning tasks set by an unattended death.
An unattended death's appearance 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 Syndrone (PTS). Any decomposition death scene has the potential to do the same. Emotional cues are instilled by traumatic scenes, whatever their cause.
Social workers and others involved with victims of crime and other traumatic evens would do well to consider the victims of crime links above.
Besides homicides, suicides, and death by natural causes, any decomposition of the human body requires special consideration, special handling. TOP
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