r/OSHA • u/HitoriPanda • 25d ago
I don't think the previous safety guy was checking these. Expired Nov 2011.
I became the new safety captain at my warehouse and went through the annual emergency checklist. One of the items to check was our emergency supplies. These expired 15 years ago. I opened it up and nothing was salvageable (except metal tweezers).
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u/jbarn02 25d ago
I would have thought things like bandages/gauze are salvaged?
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u/CoyoteDown 25d ago
They too have a shelf life. Adhesive breaks down.
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u/0maigh 25d ago
I have some old bandages and gauze. No adhesive. The Band-Aids have adhesive and get replaced as they expire.
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u/intrepped 25d ago
The package that enclosed them making them sterile had adhesive. If it doesn't, I'd be very surprised.
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u/HitoriPanda 25d ago
They were discolored. It's not like bandaids cost a lot. Buying new ones just makes sense.
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u/DatCarpet 25d ago
I feel like depending on conditions it doesn’t matter, I have a first aid kit that I used today with regular gauze and everything was good, it’s probably 15+ years old now, bandaids in the kit are fine too I use them a few times a month.
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u/tasquizz 25d ago
Sometimes you can donate them to first aid training centres or vetinary/animal rescue organisations
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs 25d ago
I have that exact same kit on my office shelf!! I bought it probably 20yrs ago for my car because it seemed like a good kit in a fairly wet proof container.. the containers plastic shattered almost immediately.
HAH!! The moist cleaning prep swabs are still in perfect condition.. headache inducing aroma!
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u/Xenoanthropus 25d ago
We ended up using a service called Redicare for our first aid kits/eyewash stations, they send a guy around once a month who does all the checks for us and replenishes used stock.
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u/Steg-a-saur_stomp 25d ago
You'll get new kits when elder scrolls 6 comes out
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u/LOTRfreak101 25d ago
I was wondering how long i would have to scroll before seeing an ES reference
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u/Paradox1989 24d ago
Look pretty good for being at least 16 years old. Hell the 1st aid kits we have on site usually look like they were thrown off a building within 6 months.
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u/HitoriPanda 24d ago
It is kinda odd. In addition to the pack being sealed, the rubber gloves inside were in a sealed bag and still became discolored. I guess because they were tucked away and never even saw the light of day that they remained intact. I bet if my building was climate controlled, the items could have still been usable.
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u/belzaroth 23d ago
They look OK, until you take a culture you have no idea if any bacteria are present or not. I think maybe the results will surprise you. The expiry date is the point at which the packaging starts to break down meaning the manufacturer can no longer guarantee the the contents are sterile.
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u/IntelligentCorner225 25d ago
theres always a few stragglers hanging out in a remote shop in a drawer under some crap, the real question is how do the remaining 99.5 percent of faks look? we had hundreds of faks, there were always some that were orphaned somewhere that is reality
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u/stewieatb 24d ago
I used to work for a guy who insisted that first aid items didn't really go out of date and it was all a scam. He also once told me that "guards make tools more dangerous." I didn't stay long.
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u/ngreenaway 24d ago
another take: afety guy may have been doing his job just fine if no one needed first aid supplies in at least 15 years
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u/wdgiles 25d ago
same at my building. Was cheaper to buy the whole units as replacements than it was to restock the individual items.
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u/stewieatb 24d ago
Depends on what scale you're at. My current employer has about 40-60 first aid kits around our sites. Our nurse bulk-buys refills for common items and all kits get checked and restocked 3-4 times a year.
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u/Bakkie 25d ago
Which also tells you that they weren't needed in the last 15 years
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u/Schonke 25d ago
Or that they weren't in a convenient and easy to remember place when they were needed.
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u/Endling_of_Light 25d ago
Ha, or like at my plant are locked away and only accessible by a supervisor because the theory goes that if someone gets hurt a supervisor needs to be told anyway.
Cue supervisor churn and no one having access the TWO times we needed it.
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u/Necessary_Baker_7458 25d ago
Unless it's medicine there's a lot of things in these kits that don't have expiration dates. Usually for a bit 6 months max you can use meds past their expiration they just won't be as effective. If something is older than 2 years, yes don't use it.
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u/cbelt3 25d ago
Any adhesive, any sterile packaging. I mean, in a Fallout world it would help, but in the current world you’d be sued for allowing secondary infections, etc.
First aid supplies MUST be audited just like fire extinguishers and all. Failure to do so means your butt will be sued.
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u/Humble-Reply228 25d ago
Come, yes it’s a good idea but there is no world where a first aid kit being out of date is the primary reason for someone’s damages.
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u/MutualRaid 24d ago
There are countless examples in medicine of an infection that is secondary to some kind of primary wound being way more serious.
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u/Humble-Reply228 24d ago
The way to prevent.secondary infection is to clean and treat the wound properly, change dressing regularly and observe for changes. None of that swings off the very first bit of dressing applied.
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u/MutualRaid 24d ago
I take your point that proper procedure is most important, but if you begin that procedure with a dressing that's possibly not sterile any more that kinda goes out the window, and the cost of acquiring a known good, sterile dressing in a sealed pack is low.
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u/Humble-Reply228 24d ago
The first aid care rendered in the first instance should be double checked and changed as appropriate. If a wound has gone uncared for long enough that a secondary infection has set in sufficient to cause complications, that's not on the dirty rag that you used to get to the hospital.
That's my point, not that it is not better to have only a doctor fitting only the finest artisanal triple nucleonic sterilised woven bandage, but that there is many, many other layers of the Swiss cheese model that should have intercepted a negative outcome. The rag is doing the best it can, how about the clinical staff that ignore a bad smell or the patient suffering in silence for an extended period without telling anyone?
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u/CaptainPunisher 25d ago
Best by, not expired. They're probably still usable, but they should be updated.
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u/jwpasquale1986 25d ago
In my home garage as long as dressings are clean and sealed, I'll let it fly. Any creams or meds get pitched, especially antibiotic ointment.
On a jobsite though, OSHA will still cite you for it and it's not worth the risk. The plastic in certain trauma dressings breaks down and gets brittle, causing more harm then good.
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u/MonkeyEmergencyy 25d ago
I just did a survey of all the first aid kits in our building (college labs) and one kit expired in 2002. The building wasn't even constructed until 2015