CHANGES ARE COMING TO THE WORKPLACE STANDARD FOR FIRST AID KITS.

Occupational Health and Safety, http://ohsonline.com posted the following article January 19, 2015, titled “Revised ISEA Standards Establishes Two Classes of First Aid Kits” in which they outline the coming changes to ISEA and ANSI standards regarding first aid kits in the workplace.

Read the full article here:  http://ohsonline.com/articles/2015/01/19/revised-isea-standard-establishes-two-classes-of-first-aid-kits.aspx?admgarea=news

Like all new regulations, industry stakeholders will have a year to comply with the requirements of this new standard.

We have just received our copy of the new standard and are in the process of studying how this new standard might affect our business customers.  We know from OSHA Online’ article there will be two classes of first aid kits.

The standard for those two classes of kits will require workplace first aid kits to provide a wider array of first aid supplies than ever before.  Class A kits will require a minimum of eighteen items while the old standard required only ten.  The Class B kits require twenty-two separate items including a splint and a tourniquet.

In addition to the new content requirements, these kits will also have to be properly labeled, and their locations visibly marked with a first aid kit sign.

We will get into the new standard in more depth in the weeks to come but we wanted to get the news out quickly so that you can begin to think about how this new standard might affect your organization’s first aid kit maintenance program.  The really good news for our customers is that many of our industrial first aid kits already meet or exceed the new standard for the Class A kits in terms of content so for many it will become a and issue of obtaining the appropriate label.

We will post the contents lists of both classes of kits in a future blog post and get into more of the standard’s details.