Shop First Aid Supplies

[DouglasJRizzo]

I keep jars of Cayenne on hand for varmint control. When squirrels, rabbits or whatever start to gnaw on things around the property I mix it with hot water and brush it or spray it on. I've never seen their reaction but I'll bet it was a sight because they never try again.

There used to be a skunk that would come by my house in the wee hours and dig thru the flowerbeds looking for whatever it is that skunks eat.
It would then spray the house and leave.
This happened about 5 or 6 times and I *really* wanted to do harm to that critter.
A relative suggested red pepper. So I went to a restaurant supply house and bought a huge jar of ground, red pepper. I mixed it in thoroughly with the mulch.
Next night, Mr Skunk got a snoot full and took off - never came back.

 

[Ox]

My insurance carrier and Cal OSHA dictate what first aid cabinets I place throughout the shops.
it's based on employee number. The thing that makes me a little mad is the company that maintains our cabinets is forever rotating, that is to say throwing away all kinds of items in the first aid cabinets because there out of date. Anything liquid such as eye wash or pills like aspirin. Some of this stuff is every 6 months and hundreds of dollars a year.

This MRE can be et 15 yrs from now, but that gauze wrap and Aspirin have a 6 months shelf life.
Follow the money...


---------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[M.B. Naegle]

My insurance carrier and Cal OSHA dictate what first aid cabinets I place throughout the shops.
it's based on employee number. The thing that makes me a little mad is the company that maintains our cabinets is forever rotating, that is to say throwing away all kinds of items in the first aid cabinets because there out of date. Anything liquid such as eye wash or pills like aspirin. Some of this stuff is every 6 months and hundreds of dollars a year.

We had a couple of companies quote the same service restocking our cabinets and we decided to instead manage it ourselves. The service is ultra convenient, but IMO overpriced for what they do. We have a list of what came in each cabinet when it was new and once a year go through it and fill in the blanks. I can understand medicine losing potency over time, but IMO as long as the solid-goods are sealed and sterile, they should be fine.

Personally, I try to stretch expiration dates out on stuff (if it isn't moldy, stale, or full of bugs, it's good!). I think there's a lot of stigma with people only trusting "new" stuff and anything "old" is automatically inferior in some way. IMO age is only a number. If you can't tell WHY something is no good (composition or potency breaks down? New research has taught something is actually ineffective or dangerous?), it should still be good. Our company is a blend of new and old, so it's expected that not everything is going to be fresh off the truck. We have some ammonia packs in the medical kits to wake up a fainter that have NEVER been used. One cabinet might be 30 years old, but those ammonia packs are still sealed so they're still in there.

 

[Chip Chester]

(snip). ...a well sharpened pair of tweezers for metal splinters,

The most-used first-aid tool in the box. I have some with integrated magnifying glass. They probably come with that and a LED light nowadays. Note: triple-tap on an iPhone home key brings up a magnifying camera with light and filter options. Handy to help see the little splinters, and fewer buttons than the full cam app.

Other options: high-strength magnet for splinters or swarf in/near the eye, (careful there)...

 

[Chip Chester]

If you work alone, a phone in your pocket. Twice now i've gone down or been trapped and calling for help was the only way to fix the problem. A full surgical suite hanging on the wall doesn't do you any good if you can't get to it. Bob

Pre-dial 911, and put it in your pocket so your butt hits 'send' if you fall.

 

[Ohio Mike]

Pre-dial 911, and put it in your pocket so your butt hits 'send' if you fall.

I had to laugh out loud on that one.

Many new smart phones have emergency accessibility features. On the Android you can call 911 without unlocking the phone just . The iPhone will call 911 if you squeeze it several times, no need to dial. If the phone is connected to a car via Honda link or similar and air bags blow the phone will dial 911. And if you configure your emergency contacts in the iPhone then the phone will text those emergency contacts that your phone has made an 911 call.

 

[SVFeingold]

Holy shit guys...stop pouring piss and flour and sugar and axle grease into open wounds. You have phones and cars, a hospital or urgent care can't be that far away. Come on now.

Re: the Quikclot, it's a different brand and product from Celox. The powder version is falling out of style in the EMS world, as I understand it, compared to the impregnated-bandage version. The former can get pushed out by arterial blood, and doesn't apply compression inside the wound. It's also much harder for doctors to clean out once you do get help. I keep some in my first aid kit but generally it's meant for catastrophic bleeding. If a wound warrants the Celox coming out, an ER trip is a given. Otherwise it's not really necessary.

Also recommend exploring some of the fancier medical tapes and wound dressings from 3M and other medical suppliers. Tegaderm, Blenderm, and Micropore are all fantastic when you need a bandage or some such to stay on. Nexcare are the best bandages hands down. Alcohol wipes to ensure bandages stick. Steri-strips are probably a better bet for wound closures than DIY glue/thread jobs. Or Vetbond which is the same thing as medical superglue for humans, only you can actually buy it.

Splinter-Outs are cheap (and sterile) and do their job well. I keep hydrocolloid and padded silicone dressings in my kit and around the house as well. They come in handy a couple times a year.

First aid or antiseptic gel with lidocaine can be a godsend for abrasions and burns, along with occlusive dressings like Xeroform.

Get an Israeli bandage. Actually get two, and learn with the other one so you know how and when to use it.

If you carry a gun or any of your employees are likely to, get a HALO chest seal and learn how to use it.

Lots of other options but unless you're really in the middle of nowhere these kits are good for minor injuries and for keeping people alive/comfortable until they can get to an ER. Don't try to play doctor too hard.

I put my own kit together because I wasn't thrilled with the quality of any pre-packaged first aid kits I've seen. Most have the cheapest possible version of each item. But if you don't want to spend a couple nights browsing Amazon, just get a good approved kit.

If your shop is a business involving other people, get an AED as well. Aspirin is great but it'll only go so far. If you're worried about falling down and not being able to reach a phone, considering an Apple watch if you already use an iPhone. They can detect falls and automatically alert EMS.

Most importantly though: stay safe. Don't poke around live machinery when you're tired.

 

[SVFeingold]

I think there's a lot of stigma with people only trusting "new" stuff and anything "old" is automatically inferior in some way. IMO age is only a number. If you can't tell WHY something is no good (composition or potency breaks down? New research has taught something is actually ineffective or dangerous?), it should still be good. Our company is a blend of new and old, so it's expected that not everything is going to be fresh off the truck. We have some ammonia packs in the medical kits to wake up a fainter that have NEVER been used. One cabinet might be 30 years old, but those ammonia packs are still sealed so they're still in there.

Ammonia packs might still be good, but adhesives break down, elastomers can slowly outgas and dry out, and of course certain kinds of drugs may lose potency.

That means old bandages won't stick as well, dressings may not be as pliable, sterile packaging can't be guaranteed to be sterile anymore, etc. There is rarely such a thing as "sealed." Pretty much every material you handle is gas-permeable to various degrees. It takes a long time, but it's a real effect.

You can test some of this yourself, but some you can't test. Most of the time it's fine. Chances that your non-sterile packaging will give someone a serious infection are slim. A bandage falling off isn't the end of the world. Expiration dates based on empirical testing are going to be for the worst-case (but still acceptable) scenario the manufacturer expects the product to see, and likely based on when these negative effects start to occur. Plus a considerable safety margin. Meaning things will last a lot longer in your 24/7 climate controlled 72 degree shop than in the back of your car.

Most companies though would rather spend the $100-$200 replacing the kit every few years than start digging down into the minutiae. Not to mention the liability risk. It's a lot easier to say "everything in this new pack is guaranteed to be in good condition and work as intended until XX-XX-XXXX" than to say "oh sure it's like 20 years old or whatever but does that really matter I mean yeah those aspirin look a little brown and half the bandage wrappers have come undone but they still work fine I bet."

Airplane maintenance also involves scrapping perfectly good parts to replace with new ones that have guaranteed performance for X hours. Not the same stakes in this case of course, but a similar principle applies. And don't forget that the quirk of piece-meal replacing stuff that gets used but never checking expiration dates, is that the most rarely-used stuff is also going to be the oldest. If you're lucky it won't be something life-critical that fails you in that 1-in-20-years accident because it was never replaced.

 

[Ox]

 

[ttrager]

We have:

A steel first aid cabinet, lockable. On the side is a laminated 8 x 11" instructions and phone number to the clinic, with a map.

Inside:

The usual array of bandages, including finger-tip. Nitrile finger "COTS" (little condoms for finger tips). Some large gauze and wrap/tape. A bloodborne pathogen kit. Spray bottles of wound cleaner. Hydrogen peroxide. Alcohol swabs. Tweezers. Aspirin & Tylenol. Eye wash. Neosporin. Iodine. Tongue Depressors. Small spray can of styptic/clotting spray for our diabetic (has a tendency to bleed if cut).

 

[Trueturning]

Holy shit guys...stop pouring piss and flour and sugar and axle grease into open wounds. You have phones and cars, a hospital or urgent care can't be that far away. Come on now.

Re: the Quikclot, it's a different brand and product from Celox. The powder version is falling out of style in the EMS world, as I understand it, compared to the impregnated-bandage version. The former can get pushed out by arterial blood, and doesn't apply compression inside the wound. It's also much harder for doctors to clean out once you do get help. I keep some in my first aid kit but generally it's meant for catastrophic bleeding. If a wound warrants the Celox coming out, an ER trip is a given. Otherwise it's not really necessary.

Also recommend exploring some of the fancier medical tapes and wound dressings from 3M and other medical suppliers. Tegaderm, Blenderm, and Micropore are all fantastic when you need a bandage or some such to stay on. Nexcare are the best bandages hands down. Alcohol wipes to ensure bandages stick. Steri-strips are probably a better bet for wound closures than DIY glue/thread jobs. Or Vetbond which is the same thing as medical superglue for humans, only you can actually buy it.

Splinter-Outs are cheap (and sterile) and do their job well. I keep hydrocolloid and padded silicone dressings in my kit and around the house as well. They come in handy a couple times a year.

First aid or antiseptic gel with lidocaine can be a godsend for abrasions and burns, along with occlusive dressings like Xeroform.

Get an Israeli bandage. Actually get two, and learn with the other one so you know how and when to use it.

If you carry a gun or any of your employees are likely to, get a HALO chest seal and learn how to use it.

Lots of other options but unless you're really in the middle of nowhere these kits are good for minor injuries and for keeping people alive/comfortable until they can get to an ER. Don't try to play doctor too hard.

I put my own kit together because I wasn't thrilled with the quality of any pre-packaged first aid kits I've seen. Most have the cheapest possible version of each item. But if you don't want to spend a couple nights browsing Amazon, just get a good approved kit.

If your shop is a business involving other people, get an AED as well. Aspirin is great but it'll only go so far. If you're worried about falling down and not being able to reach a phone, considering an Apple watch if you already use an iPhone. They can detect falls and automatically alert EMS.

Most importantly though: stay safe. Don't poke around live machinery when you're tired.

I have mostly made sure to have good first aid supplies and updated when the kids were still at home. I never scrimped. Buying from Zee Medical I liked their durable bandages in many cases and they also had water proof bandages also. When a bad injury happens and blood is everywhere it is good to get serious about what I have on hand as I am very familiar with first aid care and have to a minor extent.

A tourniquet U.S. thought of if a injury requires it as baize will hinder it yet there would be severe blood loss. Many people choose not to have them and it is a personal choice. Something can be used in a pinch and many here are smart to improvise which is something we can pull off given our trade as it happens all of the time.

One thing for the family medical kit is infect sting relief of some kind it really makes a difference. Too those injections for allergic reactions and drug overdoses are interesting yet last I checked they are expensive. My brother has always carried a couple of bandaids in his wallet it never fails that he has them. It is something he has done for decades.

Just like with tools I have preferences and the same with my first aid and camping and travel supplies. Bufferin tablets are good to have around if anyone has a heart attack or chest pains. It opens up the arteries and can lessen permanent damage in cases.

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

When it comes to splinters, I bought a set of loupes from MSC and a great tweezer set.
The loupes were, I think, around $30 and so was the tweezer set.
Worked so damn well I bought two more of each.

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/84395839

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/06554307

 

[ncjeeper]

Just buy an osha approved kit and hang it on the wall.

Cheap and easy

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

I did the same.

 

[52 Ford]

It takes 15 minutes for an ambulance to get to me and it's a 20 minute drive (down narrow, winding roads) to the nearest urgent care (or doctors office for that matter).

Plus I usually work alone.

Talkin' to you, @SVFeingold

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-

 

[52 Ford]

All of the Android phones I've had in recent years (they were all Samsung Galaxy S phones) have had FANTASTIC "magnifier" apps pre-installed. Big magnets are good for shallow magnetic splinters (steel splinters in eyes). I have a few pair of small pliers I ground to have smooth jaws and a fairly sharp edges that I use to pull most splinters.

When I was doing residential framing, it didn't take very long (maybe a year?) before I learned that if you get a splinter from a piece of OSB (I shoved a LOT of OSB onto rooves). As soon as you get a chance, take your razor knife and cut the splinter out. If I didn't do that, the splinter 9/10 times would get infected and hurt like hell the next day.

I also ended up keeping a few paper towels and a roll of electrical tape in my tool pouch (tool belt). I started doing that after I cut my thumb lengthwise almost bone deep on a rack of 7/16" staples when we were roofing a garage. Ended up with toilet paper and Tyvek tape on my thumb. THEN I had an entire stack of 7/16" OSB to put on the roof before the day was done. Was carrying 2 sheets at a time up an extension ladder. Good times. I made SHIT money (less than minimum wage) and my boss was kind of a dick, but I really liked that job.