Personal Safety Kit

A safety kit is an essential tool. It is small and packed with just the things that are needed to survive for 24 hours under difficult field conditions. It also have items that will help in recovery (if you are lost) and doing a temporary patch-up for minor injuries.

Safety Kit

Each person must have a personal emergency safety kit.

This should be as small and light as possible as they must be carried easily, such as in a coat pocket. It will be carried at all times when you are outside urban areas!

The purpose of this safety kit is to help you survive unexpected conditions. These kits are an essential component in the Field School's safety procedures.

  • Lost: survival for one day with shelter (poncho, space blanket), fire and food.
  • Dehydration: Water purification tablets, ziploc bag.
  • Separated from Group: whistle, compass and map.
  • Injured: Bee or wasp stings (antihistamine), cuts (bandages and tape).
  • Equipment failure: knife, line

A safety kit consists of those items which are held in reserve for emergencies. It should not include items that are accessed or used regularly.

This kit should be assembled in a container that is robust and which will protect the contents. Note, again, that this kit has items just for emergencies, so that it is not expected to be opened often. It may never be opened (which is good) except to refresh expired items or to verify the contents.

Thinking through what is appropriate for a Safety Kit is an important exercise. It is also important how you package the Safety Kit. You must carry this kit anytime you are away from base camp.

The following items are examples and represent what we consider to be a minimal list of items.

  • Waterproof LED flashlight with extra batteries
  • Magnesium fire starter bar (or other fire starting system) THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO USE)
  • 5 in one kit (or similar compact survival kit): compass, whistle, flint, matches, waterproof container, small mirror
  • 10 meters of 400 lb. test nylon string
  • Iodine pills and test treatment pills
  • Emergency space blanket
  • Emergency poncho
  • Emergency Knife, blade exceeds 3 1/2" [Note: TSA prohibits from carrying on board; check it with baggage]
  • 3 1/2" self adhesive bandage wrap
  • 10 medium butterfly bandages
  • Diphenhydramine tablets with instructions for use in sealed bag
  • Ibuprophen tablets with instructions for use in sealed bag
  • 1/2" waterproof tape
  • Two protein bars
  • Extra Rite-in-Rain note pad
  • Carabiners (not for climbing but for supporting equipment)
  • Small waterproof bag to store all of the above

In addition, it is important to have a contour map of the expected research area.

Creating a Safety Kit

Each individual is responsible for creating a Safety Kit. This kit should be a personal reflection of personal needs and the anticipated field situation. For example, there is no need to have snake-bit gear in Hawai`i as there are effectively no snakes in Hawai`i.

Hints and Suggestions for Assembling a Safety Kit

A good Safety Kit will develop with experience. To a certain extent, new equipment and supplies keep improving the choices for items to be included in the kit. This means that a field researcher is likely to periodically review the availability of items and, when desirable, add or swap out items from the existing kit.

Getting started is helped by several sources of basic supplies. We do not endorse these particular items; they do tend to meet our specifications.

As an example, the following items were available at Sport's Authority:

  • Advanced Medical Survival Pak ($34.99)
  • Advanced Medical Medical First Aid 0.5 ($7.99)
  • Coughlin's Emergency Blanket ($2.99)
  • Cedar Key Rain Poncho ($1.99)
  • Coughlin's Braided Cord 50' ($3.99)

Stores, such as Sports Authority, also have a choice of knives and carabiners.

Additional items, such as bandages and tape, can be purchased at any pharmacy.

On-line sources, such as Amazon, also carry all of these items, or their equivalent.

Topo Sheets, "aka contour maps," (Kauai 1963 7.5 minute series) are available from the University of Hawai`i SOEST website.

Last updated: September 23, 2011.