Gilchrist County

Suicide Cleanup in a residential or business setting removes blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) from furnishings, walls, floors, and fixtures. Suicide Cleanup should include decontamination of the general area as well as direct decontamination of non-porous surfaces. A crime scene may reflect the presence of Suicide Cleanup technicians by sealed areas, and no other telltale signs of their presence.

Suicide Cleanup would seem to involve homicides and little else. In fact, about 1 in 10 Suicide Cleanup jobs involve homicides or other violent crimes. Most Suicide Cleanup involves suicides and unattended deaths. Then there are the many accidental deaths and traumatic injuries without death.

Our suicide cleanup experience tells us that that women that women choos less lethal means to commit suicide. What this means for Suicide Cleanup depends on the method chosen. Because women choose drugs about 26% of the time (Comprehensive Textbook of Suicidology, page 151), their deaths go unnoticed. As such decomposition arise more often, which leads a suicide cleanup into the domain of a decomposition cleanup. The two reflect the same cleaning methods in most cases because damage caused may remain the same.

However, once a suicide becomes a decomposition cleanup task, fluids may have migrated to walls, toilets, down walls in to rooms below and up walls. Rarely does blood or OPIM wick far up a wall. As a consequeces, removing drywall six inches up a wall should remedy wall damage by blood, for example,

Decomposition means that the deceased's body decomposed to some degree. Decomposition begins shortly after death and signs of decomposition begin shortly after as blood moves to the body's lowest area because of gravity. Enzymes and bacteria internally and externally multiply because the bodies defenses no longer work internally. Externally bacteria multiply because the deceased no longer removes external bacteria by washing.

The rate of decomposition depends on many factors. Temperature, humidity, ventilation, diet, weight, and other factors come into play. By far temperature plays the biggest part in decomposition. Ventilation plays a large part in the decomposing body's off-gassed odors.

Along with decomposition bacteria in the body off-gas sulfur-like odors mixed with fecal and urine odors. These odors become nauseating to many people, especially those unfamiliar with death related activities.

The reader should understand that the death odor is not dangerous, even though it does make some of us ill. The death odor does not contain bacteria or viruses, only gases from micro-organisms taking part in the decomposition process or as decomposing matter.