Adventure Medical Kits’  co-founder Frank Meyer spoke recently with outdoor radio show Backcountry Utah about the benefits of using powerful DEET-free insect repellent Natrapel 8 hour. Click here to listen to the interview.

Natrapel 8 hour contains CDC-recommended active ingredient Picaridin

Along with providing protection from insect bites and stings that is equal to or greater than that of DEET, Natrapel 8 hour’s formula — containing 20% of the active ingredient Picaridin — is also gear safe, meaning it won’t melt your fishing line, sunglasses, camera lens or other pricey plastic or synthetic materials like DEET can.

By Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

I’ve been chomped by a tick multiple times, as have most people who regularly tramp in the outdoors. It’s creepy — the tick drops onto your skin, burrows in painlessly, and sucks. Its anticoagulant can cause tick paralysis, and these arthropods carry all sorts of infections: Colorado Tick Fever (a virus), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (parasite), Tularemia (a bacteria), and the more commonly known Lyme Disease.

The recent Swine Flu scare, and the subsequent calls of government health officials to use hand sanitizers regularly as a key means of reducing the likelihood of contracting the virus, has reignited the alcohol vs. benzalkonium chloride debate. While alcohol based hand sanitizers with concentration levels above 60% are effective at killing germs, next generation sanitizers containing benzalkonium chloride have been shown to provide protection long after an alcohol based sanitizer evaporates from your skin.

Handclens (the generic name for AMK’s Adventure Hand Sanitizer ), which contains BZK, kills all 3 types of germs: viruses, bacteria and fungi, including Influenza Type A, of which Swine Flu H1N1 is a subtype.

BE SAFE Travel Tip – Plan Ahead and Visit the CDC Website Before Traveling

At least three months before your trip abroad visit the Center For Disease Control website www.cdc.gov./travel/travel.html and you will find health information for specific destination, recommended immunizations and much more.

Be prepared – bring a travel specific first aid kit on your trip!

Learn more travel medicine and first aid tips – click here for Dr. Weiss’s Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine.

Q:
Doc, Are the products safe for kids?

A:
The EPA, CDC, and American Academy of Pediatrics all deem 30% DEET or less to be safe for children when applied according to directions. Children should not be allowed to apply insect repellent to themselves, and repellent should not be applied to their hands. For more information check out these sites:

• CDC (Center for Disease Control)
• AAP
• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

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