Most people understand that suicide hurts its survivors deep down. We know this too because of our experience and losses to suicide. We are cleaners. We cannot ease the pain. We can, though, help the healing process to begin by returning the scene to a biologically safe condition.

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.

Who is the victim?

Who is the responsible party?

Where is the wound?

What type of weapon was used?

Where did this suicide occur?

How long was the deceased down?

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).