Maryland suicide cleanup information remains available for telephone calls on all days at all hours. Do not hesitate to call of information. Even if you intend to help cleanup after a family or friend's suicide, you are welcome to call. This web site has a public as well as business interest. |
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Blood Cleanup - Floors - Wood - Concrete - Natural Stone - Ceramic Tile - Carpeting - Vacuuming
Page Two: Walls - Furniture - Mattresses - Clothing
Suicide Cleanup
Maryland Suicide Cleanup Information |
Below readers find information in two parts. Part one covers some cleaning issues related to fixed and unfixed property. Most of the suicide cleanup information here relates to residential suicide cleanup. Some of it covers business and industrial cleaning. For instance, concrete cleaning offers advice for blood cleanup following a suicide on a concrete floors. Although one of the least complicated types of suicide cleanup, at times, blood cleanup on concrete becomes a serious issue, but nothing beyond a healthy crime scene cleaner's ability. |
Suicide cleanup follows the same rules and procedures as other types of homicide cleanup. As a form of homicide cleanup, suicide is homicide, suicide cleanup may follow an unaccompanied death. Unaccompanied deaths most often encounter moist blood or dry flaky blood with other matter. Some people believe that suicide carries a stronger emotional toll on cleaners, too. Families remain in a state of extreme emotional turmoil. Although they may not show it, they experience a strong loss. Cleaners must remain aware of their demeanor in these cases.
First and foremost, It is important to realize before any suicide cleanup that blood has a strong adhesive quality. In fact, some blood experts claim that blood actually acts like a tissue, whether in the body or out. As it coagulates it adheres, glues, itself to its contacting object. Because of a cascading affect, blood cells interlace with one another as they dry; this accounts for scabbing following an injury. On an object this cascading affect becomes an encumbrance to blood's removal. Therefore, the longer a cleaning solution remains in place, dwells, the better. Always use bleach before, during, and after working a blood soiled area. Try not to mix bleach with other chemicals, beside plain water. Never mix bleach with ammonia or ammonia products.
Mom's worldwide cleanup blood after their children bleed on kitchen floors. Baseballs, basketballs, and simple falls lead to the most innocent blood cleanup tasks. We would be foolish to suspect a simple blood cleanup of family members. Cleaning after our children makes the most sense. We would be foolish to call suicide cleanup companies for such small tasks. We would know if bloodborne pathogen concerns existed. We ko nw that unsafe sex and blood transfusion lead to HIV and hepatitis B and C.
Maryland Suicide Cleanup in the workplace becomes a much greater concern. Here we have strangers, lesser known acquaintances, and everybody becomes a suspect for carrying diseases. These "suspects" exist universally, according to the Center for Disease Control In fact, suicide cleanup's bloodborne pathogen training exists for all employees with a potential for blood exposure. Not matter where they work, any chance of working with blood or becoming exposed to blood means that these employees must have bloodborne pathogen training.
You can find bloodborne pathogen training online for about $20. It takes a few hours to complete the course. Once completed, you become certified to cleanup blood in the workplace. Although rarely asked to add suicide cleanup their job description, janitors have experienced an increase in these requests. This certification also qualifies the learner to become a crime scene cleanup practitioner. On the other hand, one can go to a crime scene cleanup school and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars. There they will receive the same "certification," although it may not be bona-fide -- genuinely authorized by the Occupational and Safety Administration. So it's best to get your certification from the American Red Cross or online. Then you can do suicide cleanup more safely.
Do it yourself blood cleanup.
Here readers find some ideas about blood cleanup. These ideas form a few suggestions. In no way can we claim a complete approach to blood cleanup. For a short explanation of blood cleanup, see the Internet and type in, blood cleanup to find university directions to their cleaning staff. Hospitals may also post blood cleanup directions on their web sites. It would benefit cleaners, professional and non-professional to read everything available on this subject. Take nothing for granted. Clean for the toddler. |
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Wood, concrete, natural stone, ceramic tile, carpeting, and now laminates may offer few problems or a host of problems. Maintenance often proves a key to the level of floor damage. Suicide cleanups on well maintenance floors allow for a much quicker recovery of biohazardous material. Ceramic, laminates, and vinyl floors often allow for quicker cleanups than plywood floors and some new concrete floors.
Nothing compares to real hardwood floors. Wood flooring soiled by blood following a suicide may clean easily or add a huge amount of work to a suicide cleanup. A wood floor suicide cleanup leaves a horrific scattering of blood, other fluids, and tissue. Nothing gets hidden, but for cerebral fluid. Besides the odors and horrific sight, this type of suicide cleanup offers similar visual challenges to most other nonporous floors. Blood does not seep into fabric, but remains in place. As it dries it coagulates. Coagulating blood leaves the novice suicide cleanup person perplexed for a time. It follows from not knowing what they are looking at, let alone how to remove soiling safely. This type of cleaning presents challenges most people have never before experienced. But it is doable. Suicide cleanup can be done by most reasonable, committed adults.
Well Maintenance Hardwood Floor
This type of floor has a fresh coat of wax or polyurethane on top. Users do not track dirt or sand upon it. They use walk off mats on all floor entrances. This simple maintenance and cleaning fabric cuts debris tracking for the first 26 steps on a floor. In this way such wood floors remain resistant, not impervious, to suicide's blood cleanup.
Problems with this type of floor do arise. See below for more on this subject.
Poorly Maintenance Hardwood Floor
A poorly maintenance hardwood floor may offer serious problems. A victim's size and length of time down may add to these problems. If over 200 pounds, the victim's remains will most probably consist of a large quantity of migrating blood. Although blood seeps deeper into this type of floor than above, it does migrate to walls, toilets, and air vents on the floor. In these cases air conditioning and heating issues may arise. Because of debris migration suicide cleanup should take place soon after the event.
Restoring poorly maintenance hardwood floors raises some issues. Will saving such a floor save time and money, or would replacing it save more time and money? Plus, do you really want to save such a floor following a suicide cleanup?
Assuming that the responsible party chooses to save such a floor, let us consider if it may be reasonably restored. Consider these possibilities:
- How long did the suicide victim remain down, in place, following the suicide act?
- How much of an incline does the building and floor show?
- How wide spread is the suicide debris?
- How large are blood puddles?
- How long are blood flows from blood's migration?
- How badly were walls soaked if at all?
- How soiled were floor vents?
- How much sanding, grinding, sealing must suicide cleanup include?
Length of time down goes to the amount of fluids released by the suicide victim's body. After 72 hours a great quantity of the victim's fluids reach the wood floor. Their it puddles and dries in place depending upon the building and floor's level and degrees off from a flat level. It also depends on the amount of ventilation, humidity, and open doors and windows. Perhaps a refrigerator's exhaust fan blows across the floor, or a ceiling fan continues to turn. These simple forms of ventilation add to blood's during time and migration. Allowed to migrate, then other issues arise.
Blood can and does migrate to walls and therefore to and even down and along seams between walls and floors. Blood migrates down toilet plumbing from poorly maintenance wood floors. Poor or too little caulking around a toilet allows for blood's migration downward. If on a second floor, the odds are that blood seeps along the metal air vents or along the backside of the below ceiling. From this sealing blood can and does seep into the room below. Oftentimes this occurs as blood now migrates to the center of the ceiling's backside. If a fan resides in the middle of the ceiling, this become the entrance for dripping down into the below room. We have a worse case here, not a usual case. In fact, this scenario will occur on a well maintenance wood floor before it occurs here. It's a matter of the floor's porosity. The greater its porosity, the slower blood migrates. Experienced suicide cleanup practitioners know well enough about this worse case suicide cleanup scenario.
The point here remains, blood migration from a suicide leads to different approaches and tasks for suicide cleanup. Variable as above come into play.
Prepping a poorly maintenance wood floor should include, as a minimum, black pad scouring with a buffing machine. The longer the better. Use Comet because of its abrasive nature and bleach content. Use pinesol, Simple Green, or Zep Citric Orange for part of your solution. Turn your black pad over half way though buffing. Remove this cleaning solution and then use a very strong bleach solution. Finally, using a strong nylon broom, clean once more using Murphy's wood soap. This will neutralize the acid content from the earlier cleaning solution and bleach. Allow this soiled area to dry out if possible. If not possible, give it a few hours with a fan blowing directly upon it. Then seal with an oil based primer like Zinnsser B-I-N. Spend the money on the best products.
Another sealer costs dearly, but it goes the distance toward odor reduction and floor preservation. Use a wood preservative. Wood preservative costs as much as $20 for less than a gallon, 50% less than Zinnsser B-I-N by the gallon, Preservative goes a very long way toward sanitizing wood. It may contain an insecticide for microorganism. In this case preservatives must be handled carefully. Always use a product that allows for pouring or painting on this product. A spray can aerosolizes this product and thereby creates an airborne hazardous material.
Older concrete usually allows for a quick suicide cleanup. Of course, other concerns may arise like bloody carpet and bloody carpet padding. Perhaps walls, furniture, bedding, mattress, box springs and other objects were soiled. To make a point, a warehouse floor carrying heavy foot and forklift traffic becomes polished by use. These floors reflect light. They also have sealed a great number of their concrete pours. As a result blood remains on top as if these floors were sealed with floor sealant or even floor wax.
Placing a solution containing bleach within on top of the blood begins the suicide cleanup process. Paper towels should be placed down first, though, because we do not want the solution to splash blood. With a good amount of solution sprayed atop the paper towels, ensure it does not begin to drip or migrate because of too much solution. Let it remain, dwell, for as long as possible. Refresh this solution if time allows. The longer in place, the better. Once blood cleanup begins, a strong, nylon broom will scrub off the blood's adherence properties.
Natural stone like marble, terrazzo, travertine, and slate will clean up like con`crete in most cases. You may wish to go with chemicals like pinsol or Zep Citric Cleaner rather than bleach. Use rubbing alcohol, safely with ventilation, for sanitizing when done.
Ceramic tile lasts for many years with reasonable use. As long as its grout and caulking around objects remains in place and maintenance, a ceramic tile floor leads to easier suicide cleanup tasks. This type of floor easily lends itself to a shop vacuum cleanup.
Using a common shop vacuum, after scrubbing and rinsing the soiled area as above, vacuum up the fluid. Be careful. One, cleaning solutions may cause the vacuum to over flow quickly. Two, placing the vacuum hose in the exhaust hole will cause its contents to discharge. Three, remove the vacuum's filter.
Before beginning vacuuming, ensure that a strong (100%) bleach solution measures one to two inches high. Then begin vacuuming. When needed, pour this solution down a working toilet. Always check the toilet before pouring your solution. Always wear a mask, goggles, and gloves. Try not to splash this solution. A window squeeze
Some people will say that the exhaust from a shop vacuum used in this way discharges bloodborne pathogens. To this writers knowledge, no data exists to support this claim. Be that as it may, we should give our respect to this claim. Wearing protective equipment while working in this environment calls for due diligence. Self-protection and protecting others remains a big part of suicide cleanup. Of course, you will use a good cleaning solution and then bleach to clean tools. Always neutralize by rinsing with plain water.
Destroy blood soaked carpet. If needed, cut it into small strips. Place in a tripled plastic bag. Place straight bleach in the bag. Call your local Environmental Protection Agency or Health Department for disposal directions. Usually when treated with enough straight bleach and allowed to dwell long enough, expect to events to occur within such bags. First, the bag become warm if not hot. This means that a strong chemical action takes place between the blood and bleach. Second, if enough bleach is used, the carpet will undergo a color loss; not its material, but the blood will undergo a color loss. At this time it most probably constitutes blood.
Although some states warn against treating biohazardous waste of this sort, it seems short sighted to deny families the freedom to reduce their biowaste load and suicide cleanup expenses.
If carpeting has tiny sprayed blood spots or blood smears without puddles, then a good cleaning will do the trick. Straight peroxide will highlight the soiled areas. Rubbing alcohol will help clean the blood; some people prefer using a strong bleach solution for this task. Anytime using bleach on a carpet, test it in an out of the way area, like a closet. Today's 7th generation carpet has extremely strong dye spots which do not easily lose their color fastness.