Posted By J Knight Don't quote me on this, but since the eyeball is about 85% water, I would think that anything entering the eye which would react adversely with water (e.g. sodium) would do such damage as to make first aid irrigation reasonably academic (yeuk), John

Posted By Merv Newman It's a long time since my St John's certificate expired, but the advice then was "water, water and lots of water. For at least 15 minutes" As John said, anything that will react with water will have already started reacting with the eyeball. Dilute it and wash it out.

Posted By Peter Rees I have to disagree with some of the previous responses within this thread:- Firstly, the primary reason for a First Aider is to prevent further loss of life or injury. Placing anything into the eye has the potential for reacting adversely with the said chemical. Secondly, having just completed my 4 day FA course, the policy given on this by the British Red Cross is not to use water or anything else - let an expert do it ie the local A+E!! Thirdly, check the chemical MSDS - this will explain exactly what can and can't be done. Hopefully the above will help your FAs to realise that they should not administer water to eyes unless they are absolutely sure that it is the correct treatment.

Posted By Jane Blunt Here is a quotation from the most recent first aid manual, which is used by the Red Cross and St John: Page 200 of the 8th edition of the FA Manual states the following:- Aims To disperse the harmful chemical. To arrange transport to Hospital. COPIOUS volumes of water should be used to dilute and disperse the chemical and the irrigation should be at least 10 minutes. Page 199 indicates a minimum of 20 minutes irrigation for chemical contamination of other parts of the body. One of my colleagues is checking whether the National Policy of the British Red Cross has changed. I will report the result of his enquiry on this thread when I get it. Until then, I suggest that you use water and plenty of it. Whether it reacts with the chemical or catalyses some process to take place, the cooling and diluting effect of plenty of water must help to reduce the damage done. Jane

Posted By Clare Haley Thank you all for your help with this