why are most medical bandages white or pink in color?
In: Other
From an assessment standpoint, having a white bandage against a wound makes it easy to determine what the wound drainage looks like. The appearance of any drainage is an important factor when a wound is healing and greenish or yellow colored drainage points to signs of infection.
If a wound is bleeding through a white bandage, it is very easy to see the red against the white. Likewise, yellow drainage, pink, green, or brown.
As for the outside coloring, bandaids and such have a “flesh-toned” outer coloring to help hide the fact that someone has a bandaid on which is simply aesthetics. Some companies have moved toward clear adhesive material so that *everyone* can participate in the camouflaging of their wound dressing if they care to do so.
Tradition: white is associated with cleanliness.
Caustic: cleaning agents from sunlight to bleach (and others) remove both wound leakage, and stains and dyes (coloring agents), resulting in whiter bandages. Repeated washings would make them whiter. Bandages are disposable today, that was not the case in the past.
Pink and blue are for food safety They are easy to spot if they drop off.
White is because it is easier to not colour them and it serves to purpose of being easy to see when you need to change them.
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