Wound Care Products to Have on Hand

There are many wound care products that you should have on hand for those emergencies that happen around the home, at the office, in the car, or while you are boating. These are all places that should have a first aid kit ready to access at a moment's notice. The following wound care products should be in all of these supply kits.

You should always have a good supply of 2 x 2 gauze pads, 4 x 4 gauze pads, tape to adhere bandages, band aids, antibiotic cream, aloe Vera gel for burns, creams containing Lidocaine, butterfly bandages, plastic gloves, a solar blanket, a cool gel pack, and Tylenol and ibuprofen. It is also a good idea to have regular baby aspirin on hand, peroxide, alcohol, witch hazel, scissors, and tweezers.

You can buy first aid kits that come pre-assembled with wound care products, or you can make your own first aid kit according to the most frequently seen injury types at your work place or home. If you decide to make your own kit does not forget to pack a small amount of things for the injuries you rarely see. You want to be well prepared in the event of a real emergency.

An ace bandage wrap for sprains and strains is handy, especially in the work place, and having some dental adhesive like people use on their dentures will allow you to secure a loose cap back on a tooth until the person can get to the dentist. Cotton balls and cotton swabs are also very handy to have close by for the purpose of cleaning wounds and applying ointments and creams.

Aspirin is something that most people do not take. Buffered aspirin will help with pain and will not cause the stomach distress that un-buffered aspirin can cause. You want to have some regular aspirin on hand in case you think someone is having a heart attack. The aspirin will help to thin the blood of the person and can sometimes prevent them from dying of a heart attack before they can be gotten to a doctor.

Remember to have pain relievers that are age appropriate to the people you treat the most often. If you rarely have children around then make certain the pain relievers and antihistamines that you keep in your first aid kit can be given to children. If you rarely see a child then you will want to make certain that you have adult appropriate medications.

Antacids are also something that you can keep in a first aid kit. Heartburn and indigestion can be very troublesome and keeping a treatment for these ailments can keep someone from unnecessary pain. You can also keep antihistamines on hand to treat people when they are having a severe allergic reaction to bug bites or a severe allergy attack.

Keep the number to poison control handy is case someone ingests a toxic substance. You also want to have all emergency information that you can have about the possible victim.

Wound Care Products and First Aid Kits

One thing that many people do not consider about their wound care products that are in their first aid kits is that these items have a limited shelf life. The wound care products in your first aid kits will not be good for indefinite periods of time. You should be having a yearly check to see what the expiration dates on your wound care products in your first aid kits are. This will allow you to replace any items that are about to be out of date.

Expiration dates on wound care products are important to heed because some medications can change when they age, and the changes that occur in them can cause them to ineffective, or it can cause them to create allergic reactions or strange symptoms in you. Medications that you have never had an allergic reaction to, can cause you to go into anaphylactic shock, after they have aged too long, or after they have been stored in temperatures that are higher than what is recommended on their packaging.

Even band aids have an expiration date. The band aid does not necessarily become bad, or stop doing its job, when it gets older, but the adhesive on the band aid may no longer function as effectively as it did when the item was first created. Band aids that have antibiotic ointment on their pads may no longer have the same effectiveness after the shelf life of the product has expired. All of these are things to keep in mind about your first aid supplies.

First aid kits should be created with the most common injuries you are likely to see in mind. If you work in a company that has a high incident of minor burns, then the first aid kits that are kept around the company should have minor burn treatment as one of its main symptom relievers. Almost all companies need to have regular aspirin on hand in case someone suffers the effects of a heart attack. Aspirin thins the blood and often stops a heart attack from becoming a fatality when it is taken immediately after the first symptoms are felt.

You should always have syrup of ipecac around if you have small children around. This syrup will help you to treat many of the accidental poisonings that children have. You should not give the syrup without contacting poison control to make certain that this is the treatment for the poison they have ingested. Some things need to be diluted with massive quantities of milk or water and not ipecac syrup.

Most companies that have outside employees keep antihistamines and the things necessary to treat bug bites, minor allergic reactions, bee stings, and blisters. All of these things can be annoying when they happen, and some of them can be quite dangerous. There should be someone on the premises that knows CPR and knows when to administer it. Having the proper products to treat minor emergencies can save a life sometimes.

Wound Care Products for Cuts and Scrapes

It is important when you have children that you have wound care products on hand to treat cuts and scrapes. Cuts and abrasions are the most common injuries that children get so having the wound care products to treat these conditions on hand will allow you to be prepared at all times.

The single most important wound care products for cuts and scrapes are self-sticking bandages like Band-Aids. These items are useful to cover the wound and prevent germs and debris from being introduced through the opening in the skin. They make bandages like these that have triple antibiotic ointment on the pad of the bandage so that the triple antibiotic ointment stays in place against the wound. Children can often be terrified to allow you to put anything on a cut or scrape because they fear that the treatment will hurt worse than the injury does. The bandages that have the ointment on the gauze portion will save you to argument of trying to apply antibiotic cream.

Wound care products that almost every mom will need to treat cuts and scrapes include hydrogen peroxide, gauze, bandages, alcohol, antibiotic ointments, cotton balls, and suckers. The candy does nothing to treat the wound itself, but it always makes the child feel better if you give them a lollipop for being so brave while you tended to their injury.

You may also want to have some butterfly bandages on hand to help you seal cuts that are pretty deep, or to seal gaping wounds. You can get these items at most pharmacies. It can also be beneficial to always have scissors and paper tape handy when you are treating injuries on a child.

Since a lot of cuts and scrapes are caused by metal objects you will want to make certain that your child is up to date on their immunizations. You want to have a record of when your child had their last tetanus shot. If it has been ten years since they have received a tetanus shot they will most likely require one if they cut themselves on a metal object. Do not rely on memory to tell you when their last shot was. Write this information down and keep the paper in the medical supply, or first aid box in your home.

Tweezers are handy to have in your supply box because when glass is involved in the injury there is a good chance that there could still be some glass in the cut. Tweezers will help you to get the foreign matter out of the wound before you begin to dress the wound. A small flashlight may also be needed to see into the wound well enough to remove foreign objects like glass or splinters of wood.

Cold packs help to reduce swelling and age appropriate pain relievers like Ibuprofens, or acetaminophens, can help to reduce the pain caused by the injury. Watch a wound like this for inflammation and redness that radiates out from the cut. These could be signs of infection.

Born From The Past And Looking To The Future - The Progressive Development Of Personal Escape Masks

Ever since the dawn of the modern industrial era companies have taken heed of the requirement to protect the well-being of their workforce, an issue that has become ever more complex in a diversifying global economy. Whereas a 19th Century miner would be fortunate to be provided a hard hat and a budgerigar to protect his well-being from rock fall and poisonous gases, the modern workplace has evolved in such a way to make the employment of Personal Protective Equipment mandatory in sectors across the board, especially as health and safety legislation - in unison with and personal injury litigation - have become ever more prominent. This article looks to focus on how respirators and masks have become a leading concern in the PPE industry across a variety of workplaces, and how cutting edge technology has influenced the development of the market.

For most people, when asked to associate a theme with gas masks or respirators will think of poison gas and its historical connotations, often the school taught image of soldiers being affected by poisonous oxides released through shelling in the WW1 trenches. While this is true, the fact remains that the first patented 'gas masks' were designed backs in the 1840s, with the purpose if filtering dust from the air during construction and mining work. Yet it took the advent of the cold war, and the persistent threat of a global war inevitably featuring the mass deployment of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons for industry to apply itself in constructing a reliable - and repeat use - means of protecting an individual from these agents.

Science has leapfrogged itself countless times over the last few decades, with this progress compounding our scientific knowledge and expectations, with exposure to hazardous chemicals and waste never being greater in than can be witnessed in today's modern industrial workplace. Still employed by militaries worldwide as standard issue kit, the diversification of modern oil, gas, chemical and mining industries has seen a huge push in developing the cutting edge Personal Protective Equipment that can match this progress, and a growing reliance on Personal Escape Masks to ensure the respiratory safety of employees.

For some modern companies, the use of wrap around face masks or N95 respirators is enough, but increasingly Personal Escape Masks are coming to the fore. Unlike the former, PEMs are multiple uses, durable and provide a far greater body of protection to the user. Also, they are lightweight enough to be carried as an emergency precaution without compromising on safety, and even more so are suitable for all head shapes, degrees of facial hair, and wearers of glasses. The FDA expects basic N95s to provide a 95% degree of protection for their employees; a PEM user would expect complete protection from airborne agents and gases, with multiple layers of protection and charcoal filtering ensuring the highest standards of personal protection.

Personal Escape Masks offer superb protection from fire, possessing latex hoods capable of resisting temperatures up to 200°C - more than meeting the requirements of the NFPA 701 - and visors capable of enduring up to 150°C. Providing a means of total protection against toxic gases, smoke and carbon monoxide, along with the reassurance of fire endurance the future of respiratory PPE equipment must be heading in the direction of Escape Masks, for which the modern industrial worker can thank the legacy laid by their ancestors.

A very progressive development in relations between employer and employee, witnessed especially over the last couple of decades, has been a non unionised responsibility for companies to take seriously the 'duty of care' that they have for their employees. Often highly skilled and expensively deployed, today's workers are just as susceptible to our 19th century miner to the inherent dangers of the industrial workplace, and far more in tune to the threats that face them. Unlike other solutions the Personal Escape Mask does not just provide a reassurance; it is the embodiment of progressive industries ensuring the safety of their most valuable asset - their employees.

Medical Equipment and Travel First Aid Kits

If you are planning on going on vacation it is a good idea to make sure you pack a travel first aid kit to ensure that you have access to any basic medical supplies and medical equipment which you might need whilst you are away. Even if you are only travelling within your own country it is a good idea to have supplies on hand in case you are hurt in an unfamiliar environment and do not know the location of the nearest medical store or where to get access to medical equipment.

If you are planning on travelling outside of North America or Western Europe, it is a good idea to include a set of disposable sterile syringes. In some areas, such as Africa and South East Asia there is very limited access to clean medical equipment, and it is possible that if you require an injection, the doctor may be forced to reuse a needle. The risk of cross-contamination is very high, and you are in danger of contracting numerous blood borne illnesses. Even if you ask for a clean needle to be used, there may not be one immediately available, so providing a sterile needle of your own could be the safest option. If you are travelling with this kind of medical equipment, it may not be allowed in your cabin baggage on a flight.

Diarrhoea and rehydration medicine are also essential if you are travelling away from home. Large amounts of salt and fluid are lost from the body during prolonged cases of diarrhoea and vomiting, especially if you are in a very hot environment and are sweating as well. This can lead to dizziness, heat exhaustion and fainting, and could eventually cause more serious damage to your internal organs. Although increasing your fluid intake and eating salty foods can help, rehydration solutions are a good idea to help the body absorb fluids and essential salts. Diarrhoea medicine can also help to temporarily stop diarrhoea if it is becoming problematic.

If you are planning to travel to the tropics or spend any time in the countryside, insect repellent and bite relief creams or tablets are good ideas. Some people react strongly to insect bites, and even if you are a person who does not usually get bitten by insects when you are at home, you may react differently to foreign insects. Anti-histamine tablets can reduce the swelling and will provide temporary relief from the itching.

Bandages, sticking plasters and antiseptics are an essential part of any first aid kit. Cleaning, applying antiseptic and dressing a wound as soon as possible can go a long way in preventing a minor injury from developing into a more serious infection. Carrying out basic first aid on a more serious wound, then dressing it until you are able to get to a hospital can also make a big difference. Even if you are just planning a beach holiday, waterproof plasters are an item that will prove useful if you need to cover a small injury, such as a blister caused by a pair of flip-flops that rub. This can help to prevent sand or foreign objects getting into the wound.