When I split my bug-out bags out by category, I’m always surprised how many items fall into the ‘health & safety’ bucket. If you think about it, though, this makes sense – the goal of a bug-out bag is to keep you alive for 72 hours, and health & safety items can literally save your life.

Here are the health & safety items in my bug-out bags:

The most obvious health-related item is a first-aid kit. With bug-out bags, you always have to balance utility with portability, so I keep my first-aid kits pretty small and try to focus on having the most high-value items available. (By the way, Creek Stewart has an amazing series of bug-out bag videos, and I leaned heavily on his knowledge when deciding which first-aid items to have on hand.) Bag 1 has a pretty good little first-aid kit (the blue thing in the back), but the one in Bag 2 is tiny and I should probably upgrade it.

Other first-aid items I have include several cotton bandages (great multipurpose items to have on hand), leukotape for bandaging up blisters, clotting gauze in one bag that I should probably add to the other as well, and an eye wash water bottle attachment that flushes out stuff that gets in your eyes. Again, I learned a lot of this from Creek Stewart videos.

If you have any women in your bug-out party, you might also want to invest in some period cups! Who knows if you’ll be able to get tampons when you’re bugging out? Something to think about anyway.

I also have a few sanitary items: Huggies wipes, Wet Ones antibacterial wipes, and Colgate Wisps for brushing our teeth. (The last item might seem superfluous if we’re just talking about 72 hours, but they’re pretty light and I do love my dental hygiene.)

Finally, each bag contains a compass and whistle, which I consider to be part of the ‘safety’ half of health & safety. The whistle is to help us signal in the event that we need help, and the compass is to help us navigate.

Do you see anything glaring that’s missing? Please let me know in the comments!