An ER doc’s take on a first aid kit (Page 3 of 3)
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Originally Posted By mx5autoxer: In the middle of the summer I try not to keep my IFAK in the truck, but ccasionally I'll forget. A vehicle will get into the 120s on a hot day. I'm mainly wondering if the heat damage is a one-and-done thing or if it's cumulative. Heat damage is largely an integrated effect due to increased chemical reactivity at higher temperatures. Add humidity excursions, and the process accelerates. Just like food items, medical items will degrade with heat, but the question is whether it's to any meaningful extent over the duration the items are in carriage. Pay attention to the expiration dates. Sometimes laws require an expiration date, where the true expiration may be measured in thousands of years. Other times, the expiration date is based on genuinely detailed mfg knowledge of how that product degrades when exposed to normal environmental reactants over time. The thing is, you will almost never know the basis for some particular expiration date printed on an item. And with most medications being reactive by their very nature, that's a bit of a complication. You've got to cycle through the stuff. If you take a controlled photo of the individual medications with a proper color calibration card, and do that again in 5 years time ... you see visual differences in some of these things. |
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Great thread that is relevant to our every day lives. Before my son and I went on an Alaska hunt I built out our medical kit with my doctor. On top of that we both did a stop the bleed course. We didn’t have any issues so my kit is now my edc kit. Always be prepared and hope to never use it. |
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Originally Posted By L_JE: Heat damage is largely an integrated effect due to increased chemical reactivity at higher temperatures. Add humidity excursions, and the process accelerates. Just like food items, medical items will degrade with heat, but the question is whether it's to any meaningful extent over the duration the items are in carriage. Pay attention to the expiration dates. Sometimes laws require an expiration date, where the true expiration may be measured in thousands of years. Other times, the expiration date is based on genuinely detailed mfg knowledge of how that product degrades when exposed to normal environmental reactants over time. The thing is, you will almost never know the basis for some particular expiration date printed on an item. And with most medications being reactive by their very nature, that's a bit of a complication. You've got to cycle through the stuff. If you take a controlled photo of the individual medications with a proper color calibration card, and do that again in 5 years time ... you see visual differences in some of these things. Whole heartedly agree. I know that some things absolutely do degrade at a certain rate and heat increases that. Other things are very stable and the exp date is just .gov bs. I just wasn't sure if there are certain meds in particular that are well known for being one way or another. In particular I was thinking about my Epi Pen. I know the epinephrine is degraded significantly by a single instance of just few hours in a hot car. |
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Originally Posted By ronin70: How would a regular Joe get antibiotics for a kit? I do multi day kayak trips and having something like that in my kit sounds like a good idea. Pet ABs were easy to get for a long time, but crackdowns have made them harder to source. |
I like cars.
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I haven’t ordered from these guys, but I’ve seen Jase Medical mentioned elsewhere on Arfcom. They offer antibiotics and ivermectin. |
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Originally Posted By LedDuck: I haven’t ordered from these guys, but I’ve seen Jase Medical mentioned elsewhere on Arfcom. They offer antibiotics and ivermectin. Jase is good to go. |
I like cars.