[Helios]

I am looking to upgrade the first aid kits in the trucks. I have basic kits now, but I am interested in unitized kits that are easier to keep stocked and updated. Also, I want to be sure that: 1) I am OSHA compliant, and 2) have everything I might need, including those non-standard items above & beyond what OSHA might require. So, what makes a good landscaper's first aid kit, and what other items (not usually part of a kit) might I want to have on hand?

[Stonehenge]

Two items that I wish I had a few times early on, items that I believe we now stock in ours, are the cold packs you break to turn cold, and bandages that come with a gel to help cool and heal burns.

True story - was running our hydroseeder and crawling around it when I accidentally place my hand firmly on the muffler cover. After a couple minutes I saw the shape of embossed warning metal warning in my hand; a hand with a circle around it and line through it.

It was like I was that German guy in Indiana Jones grabbing the hot medallion and burning it's shape into my hand. Felt pretty stupid to have the "no hands" warning burned into my hand.

Later that day I tried my first burn gel bandage - really worked well.

As I think about it, a couple other items come to mind - tongue depressers or popsicle sticks to tape up injured fingers, tweezers to pull the various things we get caught under our skin, rubbing alcohol, and maybe aspirin or other pain killer.

[Greensmith]

Gemplers has a huge selection of the kits. I bought the contractor one.

http://www.gemplers.com/safety/emerg...d/firstaidkits

[Pelican]

Sam's Club has a pretty well equipped first aid kit that I keep on the trucks.

The most important thing to have is bandages of different sizes. Aside from breathing, bleeding is the most important thing to control. I've been involved in EMS and the priority in rescue is breathing then bleeding.

Cold packs, aspirin, and insect sting relief are a plus too. If any of your workers are allergic to insect stings you should be sure you have the antidote handy wherever they are.

First Aid is just that, it is immediate assistance to an emergency while waiting for professional EMS services to arrive. In most cases you will be maintaining breathing and/or controlling bleeding. Don't try to move the injured party unless they are in danger of being hurt worse from the surroundings.

[Lawn Lad]

We use Zee Medical kits for our trucks. A little pricey to buy at first, but the support is good from the sales reps. They make their money by selling product, so they'd like to come out regularly to check over your kits and restock them. We've limited our rep to when we call her, and I suppose its that time again. When she comes out she cleans the kits, restocks/organizes them - giving me the peace of mind that our kits are in good shape and fully stocked. Unless you're committed to doing your own maintenance of med kits, using a service is helpful to make sure the kits are well maintained.

If you use a sales rep, be careful about not over buying, you can say no and make decisions about what you are and aren't going to buy. We keep a large cabinet safety kit in our shop and then truck kits. We'll restock the truck kits from the shop kit. Given that medication will expire, buy one box for the shop, and then put several packages in each kit. It's easy to buy too much and you'll throw it out one or two years later.

I think having medical kits well equipped is important in case of emergencies, but it also sends a good message to your employees that you care about their safety and comfort. Over the course of several years I've seen the burn gels, ice packs and blood clotter be used beyond bandages, etc.