What a waste!!!

On Saturday I took St. Johns Ambulance First Aid training level 1.  I think that the medical industry is likely one of the most wasteful industries out there. And for all intents and purposes, I can understand the need for sterile materials - I don't want to get contaminated by someone else's disease. But for training purposes?

The first lesson was on how to dress minor wounds. After watching a short video of a guy who cuts his arm trying to remove a jam from a photocopier, we all went into the training room and got to practice dressing a wound on a partner.

"Open the first aid kit, take out a gauze pad and cover the wound" ... rip ... the sound of eight people ripping open a package of gauze.

"Now take another piece of gauze to clean the wound" ... rip ... the sound of eight more packages of gauze being opened. I strain not to say anything.

"Dry around the wound with another piece of gauze" ... rip ... by now my eyes are as wide as could be and the thoughts are racing through my head - can't we just pretend to open a fresh package of gauze every time?

"Time to make the dressing, place the butterfly closures over the wound and cover with another piece of gauze. Wrap the elastic gauze thingy (I forget its name already) around the wound... rip ... rip ... rip!!!

When it is my turn to dress my partner's wound, I refuse to use more than a single piece of gauze.  The trainer catches me pretending to open the second piece of gauze and scolds me, explaining that if I were to reuse a piece of gauze in real life that I could cause serious damage and infection. Practice should be a real as possible.

I explained to her that using four pieces of gauze for training purposes was a waste and that pretending to open the package every time has the same effect on the brain as actually opening a package of gauze. She rolled her eyes and said "oh, you're an environmentalist".

I don't know why, but I find the term "environmentalist" almost derogatory. It's like once I get labeled an environmentalist, I am different from the general population (at least in Kamloops, although there is a growing population of people who care about the future) and therefore my behaviour is excused as just extreme environmentalism. Instead of trying to relate to what I am saying - hmm maybe you have a point there, we could just pretend to open the packages of gauze - I get labeled an environmentalist and the rest of the class (except my partner) continues to use virgin material for every exercise.

By the end of the day, our class of 16 had managed to fill all three garbage cans with gauze, dressings, tape, numerous pairs of vinyl gloves (because we had to use a new pair for every exercise), and other unused first aid supplies. I decide that I won't be able to change this woman's mind, but maybe I can bring the issue up with someone higher up in the organization.  In the next few days I will write a letter to the Executive Director of St. John's Ambulance and offer a few suggestions about how the organization might save a few dollars ;)

What do you think? Am I being way too sensitive about wasteful behaviour, perhaps because of this challenge? Do you think that pretending has the same effect on the brain? Do you have any issues about wastefulness? What what are they? Have you ever been called an environmentalist? How does it feel?