Dear all,
I have recently been contacted by one of our archive volunteers, passing on a warning about 1930/40s era first aid kits (in our case Guide/ Scout ones). The concern was that the gauze pads in many of the kits from this period contained Picric acid which, when it dries out, is apparently unstable and a form of explosive. It seems that this has been an issue in the US of late.
I've never heard of this problem before - if anybody has any knowledge of this acid, has an idea of which kits could be affected (UK ones?) or has encountered similar issues, do let me know. We have two or three in our collections, which have obviously been fine for the last 70 years or so..…..We avoid bomb squads where we can!
http://okhistory.org/community/fic/artifacts/acid-bomb-squads-and-first-aid-kits-all-in-a-day%E2%80%99s-work-with-museum-collections/
Many thanks,
Katherine Kinrade
Archivist, Girlguiding UK
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