My job is to remove the crime scene's biohazards and related solid waste - - nothing more, nothing less. If you need more, let me know.
My name is Eddie Evans and I am a professional crime scene cleaner. I remove and decontaminate biohazardous environments created by violent crimes. This means that I clean areas contaminated by blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). I clean in homes, businesses, factories, boats, airplanes, and vehicles. My experience includes military trauma cleaning as well as crime scene cleanup experience. I am Biosafe's owner and only cleaner.
Formal Training and Education
- Crime Scene Cleanup (IICRC)
- Carpet Cleaning (IICRC)
- Decontamination - Nuclear, Biological, Checmical (US Army)
- Floor Inspection (IICRC)
- Home Inspection - (AHIT)
- Upholstery Cleaning (IICRC)
- Water Damage and Restoration (IICRC)
- AA, BA, MS
My objective: Quietly, safely, and discreetly restore the scene to a safe state, thereby relieving others from a traumatic task. You can be confident that I am dedicated to restoring a safe environment without publicity or sensationalism. I protect your privacy and property from onlookers and media once cleanup begins.
Blood and Biohazard Cleanup
For the purpose of crime scene cleaning, we understand that 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 and 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. Top
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)
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Death Odor - Miasma
The death odor, which I call "miasma," is not dangerous. Unethical cleaning companies will tell you that this odor is "dangerous." If it were dangerous, coroners' technicians, morticians, pathologists, and Pharos' priests would have died shortly after taking up their trades. The dangers from the death scene odor are in the human imagination; even our repulsion to this odor is learned. There is nothing instinctual about our sense of dread as it relates to the death scene odor. (See new car smell)
Like any other odor, miasma consists of evaporating gas molecules light enough to be carried to our noses. Once inside the nose, sensory cells convert these chemical molecules into electrical signals. These electrical signals are then sent to the brain for interpretation. Mix more than one chemical molecule, and interpretation of the "stink" becomes difficult.
Saying that miasma is "dangerous" because of some sort of bloodborne pathogen hazard is like saying that the cherry fragrance from methamphetamine will intoxicate those exposed to benzaldehyde. It is not so. (return)
There are people that actually enjoy the sweet-like fragrance of decomposed matter, I have heard.
Sometimes miasma lingers because of poor ventilation, Sometimes miasma will linger because it has permeated porous materials; fabrics, paper, wood, and more. Miasma, like everything else in nature, will leave the scene. It begins and ends.
I have cleaned murder-suicide scenes left for over one year. As a result of this extended time for biowaste decay, no miasma remained. The miasma creating bacteria died and wasted away . They starved. Interestingly, blood-soaked garments became pink or purple where they had been first blood-red, then brown, then black. Even blood on walls, ceilings, floors, mirrors, and the rest turns pink or purple without leaving an odor, miasma.
I do my best to remove miasma associated with 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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Bloodborne Pathogens means germs carried in blood that cause suffering. Some of these germs are called "bacteria" and some are called "viruses." These germs can cause diseases in humans. These germs include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A simple exposure to these germs and others may be dangerous or deadly.
Many viruses are pathogenic, but none cause miasma. Because viruses lack cell walls that bacteria develop, viruses cannot create odors. Viruses cannot receive and export oxygen and carbon dioxide. They do not "off-gas" the way that germs with cells off-gas. Viruses live directly off their hosts.
Bacteria can live for some time without a host because they store energy within their cell walls. They have their own internal digesting organs. Bacteria can change energy into different forms from within. Sometimes this energy becomes a gas. When expelled, we call it "stink" and at times following a death we call it "miasma." Methane is off-gassed and has no odor.
Even so, we all know that bacteria's off-gassing gives notice of its presence. Following a decomposition, it is this gas that pollutes carpet and padding, wood, walls, paper, cotton clothing, anything "cellulosic."
It is said that the human stomach contains over ten trillion bacteria (10,000,000,000,000). These bacteria must off-gas or explode. Sometimes during human decomposition they do both. The strength of miasma becomes relative to the size, diet, temperature, and other conditions related to the deceased. By way of example, a large male's decomposition after many years of alcoholism and meat eating will create strong miasma when the deceased passes away during summer in Florida. A small female vegetarian's decomposition in front of an apartment window in Wyoming during November will cause much less miasma.
In a sense, bacteria germs belch and flatulate as they undergo changes in temperature and chemical composition. They are in a way like humans: they give and take from their environment, except that these micro-organisms exist within our internal environment. This is one major source of the death odor, the miasma odor released from the trillions of micro-organisms within our bodies as we decompose.
We can see that there is a difference between somehow ingesting or injecting odor causing bacteria and unperceivable viruses. In any case, ingest or inject the the wrong bacteria or viruses, and the results could be deadly. Inhale bacterias' off-gassed carbon dioxide and other gases (miasma) and the results are nauseating at worse.
Are you being well served by your local government when death scene cleaning is needed?
Some cities, county coroners, county medical examiners, detectives, and county administrators refer the public to death scene cleaners.
If one or more cleaning companies are not referred by these local governments, then your local government is creating a quasi-monopoly. Your local government is also thwarting competition and the public good.
The referring employee may receive money for handing you the telephone numbers that you received. They are handing you to a crony company.
Or, it may be that the referring employee has a friend or relative that owns the companies that you were referred to call for cleaning help. Possibly, the referring employee owns part or all of the companies that you were referred to for cleaning. Catching this type of cronyism is quite hard, especially when local governments would rather ignore crony employees than create a firewall between them and you.
There are a number of ways that cronyism occurs in local governments. If you suspect that you are being victimized by cronyism, then shop around. Cronyism's essence is in fact a form of quasi-fascism. It is a standing threat to the open society.
Cronyism is unethical and thwarts free enterprise. (return to Crime Scene Cleanup Explained) (Return to nepotism)
Eddie Evans - Crime Scene Cleanup
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Crime Scene Cleanup Fees
I try to keep my fees fair and reasonable. I do not have employees. As a result, my overhead reflects my operating costs, not workman's compensation or a benefit plan for employees. Most work that I do is done in one to two days -- two days when odors are heavy. If I take three or more days, it is because I am cleaning a rather large crime scene.
Below I list questions that I ask over the telephone. These questions lead me to form a perspective of best and worse case cleanup needs.
Has the coroner or medical officer cleared the death scene for cleaning?
Do you need cleaning from a homicide, suicide, or unattended death?
Do you need cleaning in a house, apartment, condo, business, vehicle?
Do you know how long the deceased was down?
Do you know what room?
Do you know if there is a bed, mattress, couch, chair, or toilet involved?
Do you know if there is a wood or concrete floor?
Do you know when work might begin?
Do you know when work must be completed?
Are you the responsible party?
Are you related to the deceased?
How and when can you pay?
When I say that I will "clean the death scene," I am referring to the immediate area in which the body was located. The bed, couch, chair, bathroom, kitchen. This does not include personal belongings in the same room or other rooms that were uncontaminated by blood or OPIM.
I believe that my fees are fair and reasonable. My fees are a "flat fee" because I am a one-man cleaning company. I have been cleaning for years. I know pretty well what a biohazardous removal and cleanup will take if given a fairly accurate description.
So long as the person describing the scene can answer the above questions honestly and fairly accurately, I will provide my services for a flat fee and "not to exceed" an agreed upon price.
There is no question about it. My fees are quite high when compared to ninety-nine percent of the US labor force. I require a minimum $250 per hour when charging by the hour. I consider myself a master cleaner because of my education and experience. I save clients money because of this background, in my opinion.
Typically, though, I charge by the job. Rarely do I make $250 per hour, but some times I believe that I should have made much more.
Typically, my fees will range between $700 to $3,500 for a single death scene cleanup of a decomposed victim. It is a rare day when I exceed $3,500 for a single decomposition.
I have charged as little as $350 (501c3) and as much as $8,900 for
a multiple homicide. I am willing to charge even more.
I have wide experience cleaning death scenes and I know beforehand just about what I might be required to do. I make decisions; I destroy; I decontaminate, and I remove.
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Business has its own reality. There are times when my telephone goes quiet for way too long. Business idles while I wait to remove the horrific from others' lives. There are times when operation costs are higher than I would like. And then there are times when death scenes take their toll in other ways.
So, yes, I probably do charge "a bit high" for the number of hours that I labor.
My fees reflect business realities for keeping the lights burning 24/7/365, mentally and physically. There are always the emotional and physical costs associated with crime scene cleanup, not quantitative costs, but qualitative costs beyond measure.
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What I Do
I am a an experienced specialist cleaner (see education); I remove death scenes. I am paid to return death scenes to a condition in which family, friends, and other businesses can continue their activities.
This means that I remove the biohazards and destroy them. If I cannot destroy a biohazard, I alter it for safe removal. I also remove solid waste that was once directly connected to the biohazardous materials. In this manner I create a safe place for family, friends, and other contractors to go about their business.
Solid waste consists of bedding, clothing, and other fabrics. Solid waste will include the remaining, uncontaminated mattress, box springs, couch, chair, carpet, and padding in the crime scene room.
I have no right and no duty to enter other areas to "clean" or remove personal property. Unless there is a violent death, I have no right or duty to enter cabinets, closets, drawers, or jewelry boxes. I have no right or duty to remove personal property unless advised to do so by the acknowledged responsible party.
I have no right to seek out property for "cleaning" beyond the death scene; nor do I have any right to charge responsible parties or insurance companies for cleaning these objects.
I will make every effort to clean and recover cash, except soiled coins on the floor. I will make every effort to clean and recover memorabilia, pictures, dolls, wallets, jewelry.
Again, as a crime scene cleaner, In no way am I expected to clean any objects, including toys, tools, pictures, and clothing unless they are contaminated by the death event.
I will be willing to do so, but must first consider my costs. Others may enter to clean, remove, or destroy uncontaminated objects, which may proceed once I have rendered the death scene "safe." It is better for my client to hire someone that charges less than I do for incidental cleaning.
It is usually much cheaper for friends, families, and other contractors to begin the non-biohazard cleanup and restoration.
By "safe," I mean that the biohazards and potentially harmful objects from a violent death have been destroyed, otherwise altered, or removed.
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What does it mean to clean a death scene?
I need to be clear when it comes to defining a death scene. For me, to "clean" a death scene means to remove it and then clean and disinfect the immediate area. I usually seal it, too.
When I say that I will "clean the death scene," I am referring to the immediate area in which the body was located. The bed, couch, chair, bathroom, kitchen. Anything contaminated by the death scene is part of the death scene as it relates to fluids and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). This does not include personal property in the same room or other rooms that were uncontaminated by blood or OPIM.
A crime scene may exist in a small area, such as a bathroom or on a mattress. A crime scene may migrate over time as decomposition occurs. Most crime scenes, in my eight years of cleaning, remain in one room. There are exceptions, but few. (See migration)
If you wish to find more information on this subject, go here: Death Scene Cleanup
A migrating death scene means that body fluids, including blood, flow along seams, crevices, and with the tilt of a room or floor. A death scene may "wick" up a wall or furniture.
Most people spend about one-third of their lives in bed. Typically, then, many death scenes occur in the deceased's bed.
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What You Get
A caring, skilled, and knowledgeable cleaning professional will remove the crime scene's biohazards, bio-waste, and solid waste.
It is my job to reduce biohazardous material to zero in furnishings, carpet, and padding for removal and disposal. It is not my job to perform routine cleaning activities. It is not my job to remove flooring that is uncontaminated. My job could include sealing walls and ceilings.
It is my job to recover, clean, and disinfect valuables that became contaminated by the death's occurrence.
If there is a heavy fly infestation, I will spray the entire room with a disinfectant or fogger. I will also remove flies and other insect life.
At times I will offer to remove everything from the room to a "safe zone" if not a landfill. I typically remove most carpet and carpet padding as part of the crime scene cleanup.
My fees are reasonable and customary, and oftentimes paid by homeowners' insurance or business insurance.
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