A First Aid Kit

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HealthWiki > A Community Guide to Environmental Health > Appendix A: Safety and Emergencies > A First Aid Kit

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

Every workplace, health post, and community center should have a first aid kit to provide treatment in emergencies. Make a first aid kit in a container with a tightly fitting cover so water, dust, or chemicals cannot leak into the kit. Make sure everyone in the community or workplace, including new workers, knows where the kit is kept and how to use it.

Different communities and workplaces will require different kinds of first aid supplies. Consider the kinds of emergencies that may happen in your area and plan your first aid kit with this in mind. If you work with pesticides or other chemicals, read the labels on their containers to find out which medicines are recommended for poisonings.

What to put in a first aid kit

Two quarts or liters
of drinking water

Cups for
drinking

A blanket to
cover an injured
or sick person

One bottle of activated
charcoal or powdered
charcoal

List of chemicals
used in the area
or workplace
and their health
effects. For
pesticides, list
what crops they
are used on

Salt (to mix with water
to cause vomiting if
someone swallows a
poison)

A pocket mask, piece of cloth, or
thick plastic wrap with a hole cut
in the middle to use when you
do mouth-to-mouth breathing

Clean bandages, gauze or cloth,
and tape to cover cuts and scrapes

Medicines that are listed as antidotes for poisoning on the labels of pesticides or other chemicals you may use

Scissors or a knife for
cutting bandages, tape,
and plastic wrap

Tweezers to remove
splinters and fragments

A First Aid manual

Splints or sticks to keep broken
bones in a fixed position

One bar of soap

Antiseptic cream to
disinfect wounds

Antibiotic eye ointment

Spare clothes to
change into in case
of contamination or exposure

Clean cloths for washing skin and
soaking up spilled chemicals

Two pairs of rubber or plastic gloves

Coins or a phone card taped
to the lid of the kit to make
an emergency phone call at
a public phone

A body board, stretcher, or blanket to
carry an injured or sick person

This page was updated:05 Jan 2024