Emergency Survival Blanket - A Vital Part Of Every Survival Kit

An emergency survival blanket is a core element of any survival kit

, from a bulked out bug out bag all the way down to a bare basics kit in your pocket. There are many different brands and models of survival blankets but all have the same basic purpose - to keep your body heat in and keep the elements out.

Emergency survival blankets are usually made from a thin layer of plastic that is coated on one or both sides with a metallic film. The idea here is that the plastic keeps water and wind from getting through to you while the metallic foil reflects your own body heat back at you. These were first developed in the mid-1960s by folks working in the United States' space program.

The primary use of these blankets is to wrap them around the body, forming a cocoon in which body heat is trapped, keeping you warm. However, they can also be used as a tarp for shelter. Being windproof and waterproof, when draped over a lean to type of shelter, they do well in keeping rain and snow off of you. Used in a similar fashion in the summer, with keeping the foil side directed out, it will provide cooling shade.

You can even cook with them, by fashioning the blanket into a solar convection oven by using the blanket, metallic side out, as a substitute for the more typical aluminum foil in these ovens.

When deciding what size blanket to purchase, bigger is usually better. It is better to have too much material and have to wrap it around yourself a couple times than not have enough to build an adequate shelter. Plus, if you aren't alone during a survival situation, you can get more bang for your buck, so to speak, by having people pair up under emergency survival blankets. Doing so dramatically increases the available body heat, which can be a great help to anyone suffering the effects of hypothermia in particular.

Once you've purchased your emergency survival blanket, it is important to take it out of the package, unfold it completely, and then refold it in a different configuration. The reason for this is, if stored long term without use, the blankets can become weak at the fold lines. There have been reports of people unfolding their blankets for the first time in a survival situation, only to find it is nothing more than strips of material that has torn along the original folds.

by: Steve Thibeault

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