Gallup Biohazard, Blood, Crime, Death, Suicide Cleanup

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.

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.

OSHA 1910.1030(d)(1)

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

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.

Our services include professional cleaning for homicide, suicide, unattended death, and other blood loss events. We clean throughout New Mexico as well as Gallup.

Sometimes friends and relatives will ask us why we charge different rates for cleaning.

It is the additional cleaning that causes us to raise prices. Besides cleaning, more labor may be involved with special requests, sealing, and chasing effluents.

Of course, the weapon used will influence the amount of cleaning involved in death a cleanup. Imagine the difference between a handgun suicide and a shotgun suicide, both using the head as their target. Now imagine that the handgun victim used a small caliber handgun and placed a jacket over their head before pulling the trigger.

In this case, the 22 caliber handgun has a low velocity. This means that the projectile moves slowly when compared to larger handguns. At times, the 22 caliber handgun's projectile will not exit the victim's head because of the victim's head size, and the trajectory of the projectile. The human skull is quite thick and a small projectile will enter the skull, given enough velocity. The projectile may not exit the skill, given the projectiles velocity. Some deaths occur as a victim places a jacket, towel, or blanket over their head before pulling the firearm's trigger. Of course, these are planned out suicides, not homicides involving a second party. In most cases, fabrics act to shield the surrounding area from bio-waste debris. They also play a small part in slowing the projectile, if significant at all.

A significant amount of bio-waste from the impact of the small projectile to the covered head remains near the victim because of the caliber of the handgun and the head cover.

Imagine the shotgun suicide victim without the head cover. Also, a large caliber shotgun will cause a greater degree of debris spread. Usually, a shotgun will cause a 360 degree, ceiling to floor spread of human bio-waste. If a closet door is open, if a bathroom door is open, or if drawers are left open, the amount cleaning will be much greater than in the above case.

In this last case, we "chase effluents," blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM).