No death involved
Blood and bodily fluid cleanup in Fort Collins
Plenty of these jobs follow an injury, not a death. A chisel slips in the garage, a grandparent goes down the stairs, a nose refuses to stop bleeding, paramedics carry a tenant out. Any of them may leave a quantity of blood that housekeeping was never meant for.
Answered around the clock, every day
Deciding
When to clean it yourself and when to call
Fine to handle at home
- Drops or a smear on tile, vinyl or sealed wood
- It came from a member of your own family
- No rug, mattress or sofa has absorbed any
Hand it to a firm
- A pool, a trail through several rooms, or marks up the walls
- Carpet, underlay, bedding or a couch that drank it in
- The injured person was a customer, a tenant or unknown to you
- Vomit or feces are mixed in
- A workplace, where the alternative is ordering staff to do it
Workplaces
What OSHA expects of an employer
Where staff could meet blood in the course of their work, OSHA's rule on bloodborne pathogens (29 CFR 1910.1030) binds the employer. It demands a plan for controlling exposure, protective gear, instruction for the workers and the hepatitis B vaccine.
A cafe, a gym or a leasing office with none of that should think twice before passing a bucket to the nearest employee. Bringing in a firm that lives by the rule is the simpler course.
Until help arrives
Four things to do now
Block the area off
A closed door, a chair across a hallway or a sign is enough.
Do not spread it
Walking through it, or running a vacuum or steam cleaner over it, carries it further.
Wash skin that touched it
Use soap and water. If blood reached a cut, your eyes or your mouth, call your doctor.
Note what it touched
Tell the company on (970) 372-1484 the surfaces involved, so it brings what is needed.
Questions about blood cleanup
Can a carpet cleaning firm do this?
Put two questions to it: do its people work to OSHA's bloodborne pathogens rule, and where does the waste end up? Vague answers mean you want a biohazard firm.
Is dried blood still a concern?
Handle it no differently. Professionals never presume an old stain is harmless, and that judgement is not one to make by eye.
It is in my car, not my house.
That is a slightly different job. See vehicle cleanup.