THE STICKY BUSINESS OF ADHESIVE BANDAGES
November is adhesive bandage month at First Aid Supplies Online and all of our fine quality bandages will be on sale at some point throughout the month. Although we take them for granted, the adhesive bandage has been around for almost one hundred years. In that time, the adhesive bandage has come a long, long way since it was first introduced into the U. S. marketplace. Adhesive bandages come in many sizes, shapes and styles to fit the needs of many different types of individuals and situations. As there are so many bandages on the market these days, I thought it might be helpful to put some helpful information together and present it to you for your review.
Our focus at First Aid Supplies online has always been b2b so we got started selling the heavy-duty industrial grade adhesive bandages that were made popular by the big van first aid service companies in the 1970’s and 1980’s. We still sell a lot of them today and we feature them in many of our industrial first aid kits. Those heavy woven fabric bandages usually come in six sizes. A 1” X 3” strip, small strip, fingertip regular, fingertip extra-large, knuckle and patch. An extra-long strip is also now available in this type of bandage. These bandages are very popular and effective for use in the industrial workplace because they are made of thick woven fabric and feature very aggressive adhesives. So, these bandages stay on even in the toughest of work environments. The downside on these bandages is that they are tough to get off and many times will leave a residue of that aggressive adhesive I mentioned earlier. That is why you can now find a lighter industrial grade bandage on the market like Hart Health’s Lite Flex or Coverlet. They provide the lightweight alternative to the traditional heavy woven bandages. Like their heavy-duty cousins they come in the same sizes, shapes and counts so that they are easily incorporate into your company’s first aid regime.
These lighter bandages are indeed made of a lighter woven material and use a somewhat less aggressive adhesive. The flip side of the bandage world goes from woven fabric style bandages to the sheer style which is made primarily of plastic. There are many manufacturers of these types of bandages the most famous of course being Johnson & Johnson who can take credit for being the first company to bring the adhesive bandage to the market known as the famous Band-Aid. These sheer bandages come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes again to fit the needs many different individuals and situations. The upside on the sheer bandages is that tends to cost less than the woven fabric bandages and generally have gentler adhesive on them, so removal isn’t so traumatic. Almost all adhesive bandages made today are latex free and are generally labeled as such. This move away from latex has motivated the manufacturers to innovate so today’s adhesive bandage is a truly superior product than the ones we used to buy.
In my next post I’ll get into a little more detail on newer innovations in adhesive bandage technology.