Paul,

Some excellent additions IMHO.
The spider wire can be used for near anything its that strong, it will slice into your hand VERY quick tho.

Polar pure is a superior water treatment system for sure. The larger bottle is a bit bulky but thats liveable.
They do make mini bics with childproof tops at least here in Canada anyway. You can get sticker backing by buying a role of double sided tape and using it, seems a waste of dbl sided tape tho. Havn't found another solution for that yet.

This is my opinion only Paul and others will disagree I'm sure but I have owned used and broke the blast match. I returned it and got a strike force and like it much better. But it is not one handed operated. The blast match is just as good for sparks as the strike force but because it has moving parts it is subject to breakage. I never had a problem starting a fire with 2 hands using the striker, just get your tinder sorted out and spark away. The strike force is a heavier duty built sparker.

Any cord you have is better than none. That EMS cord has an even higher break weight than paracord but thats not really the point of paracord.
Sure there are stronger cords out there but none that can be separated into 8 new cords by itself. Its the multi use utility of paracord that makes it great kit.

I would keep the cord you have now if you bought it already and search the surplus shops in your area until you find some, surely you have surplus stores in New Jersey. Hell if I lived close to you i'd give you a hundred feet. E-bay has spools and 50-100 foot hanks for resonable money, the more you buy the cheaper per foot.

*Warning: the surplus store habit is very addictive once started. Send out the SAR techs boys we lost another one haha.

Mike